Here to Infiltrate and Get a Tan 4 Out of 5 Stars
New wave, Devo, the Go-Go's, Huamn League...and Sparks. In 1983, the United States finally collided with the time-lines of Ron and Russel Mael. Their keyboard driven eccentric pop and wacky sense of humor fit right into the current musical scene, and with the host of New Wave acts that were all to happy to cite Sparks as one of their primary influences, "Sparks In Outer Space" became the brothers' biggest American hit. One of those devotees, Jane Wiedlen, teamed up with Russell for the impeccably perky "Cool Places," and the accompanying video drove the single into the US top 50. It was also one of Sparks' catchiest songs in years, with Wieldlen's perky vocal the perfect counterpart to Russell's archness.
The other, lesser known duet is a humorous tale of mismatched partners lost at sea, "Lucky Me Lucky You." In addition to those two songs, we have the goofy "All You Ever Think About Is Sex" and the Devo-ish "A Fun Bunch Of Guys From Outer Space." I have always enjoyed the relatively straightforward "Rockin' Girls," where Russell falls in love "the only girl I ever met who hates 'Hey Jude'." As is the case with many of the best of Sparks' discography, "In Outer Space" always finds a way to subvert the most typical pop conventions with the clever and comic. As far as the 80's were concerned, this was the album to which they did it best, and is easily as good an album as "Propaganda" or "Indiscreet."
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