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Exotic Creatures of the Deep (Special"Pouchet Wallet" Format inc. Poster-fold Booklet) | 
 enlarge | Artist: Sparks
Label: Absolute
Category: Music
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £9.50
You Save: £2.49 (21%)
New (23) Used (3) from £9.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 3156
Format: Special Edition
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 5037300753577
ASIN: B0017PCX2K
Release Date: May 19, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - 100% ORIGINAL - POSTED WITHIN 48 HOURS
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| Tracks:
| » | Intro | | » | Good Morning | | » | Strange Animal | | » | I Can't Believe That You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song | | » | Let The Monkey Drive | | » | Intro Reprise | | » | I've Never Been High | | » | (She Got Me) Pregnant | | » | Lighten Up, Morrissey | | » | This Is The Renaissance | | » | The Director Never Yelled "Cut" | | » | Photoshop | | » | Likeable |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
21 albums in (complete with a 21-night London residency playing every one of those albums), it seems that Sparks are defying the odds and delivering their finest works to date. As with previous albums Lil' Beethoven, and Hello Young Lovers, this is pop music, but it's fun, accessible, demented, clever and unlike anything else being made--everything good pop music should be. The narrative approach of the last two albums appears to have been ditched in favour of proper songs (relatively speaking), and a thankful return for Russell Mael's patent falsetto. Thus, "Good Morning" bursts forth, riding on a catchy synth-bass riff that Scissor Sisters would sell their wardrobes for, and "Let the Monkey Drive" builds up into a thrilling, disturbed crescendo. The layered harmonies and multi-part song structures are still in place, but toned down, which makes the material more accessible. And even the hilarious song titles such as "(She Got Me) Pregnant" and the indie-boy baiting of "Lighten Up Morrissey" belie the fact that underneath all the drama and clever lyrics, Ron and Russell Mael are making the best pop music in the world today. --Thom Allott
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Always surprising, consistently brilliant, never boring June 17, 2008
Well, they've done it again, another truly excellent album!
The first single I ever bought was "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" when it first came out and that was it - Sparks became my lifelong musical companions. Yes, even when I had long hair, a leather jacket & a tendency to go to a lot of Iron Maiden concerts, I kept my 12" single version of "Beat The Clock" to dig out and play when I needed a Sparks fix!
As for this album, my all time favourite Sparks album is "Indiscreet" and this one somehow reminds me of the period between "Propaganda" and "Indiscreet" - yes, it's modern sounding but it's Russell's harmonies with himself as well as Ron's extra-snappy keyboards that harp back to the mid-70s somehow. Plus it feels like an album of different songs this time whereas "Lil Beethoven" and "Hello Young Lovers" (also excellent albums) were conceptual with a constant theme running through them both. The strange thing is that by the time you get to "She Got Me Pregant" and "Lighten Up Morrisey", you suddenly realise that maybe you've been pulled back through time to the mid 70s again - especially when the guitar playing gets pushed to the forefront of the Mael's sound sculpture.
So just buy it, okay? Pick up any Sparks album, listen to it properly and you'll begin to understand that Ron and Russell live just to make music, nothing more.
renaissence June 17, 2008
I am 64 years old and have never given up on popular music. I was driving late one night and heard an interview with Russ Mael on BBC discussing the tracks on Exotic Creatures,playing samples and explaining the ideas in the songs.Two titles,Renaissence and She Got Me Pregnant clearly expressed what I felt for Sparks,who I had forgotten for 30 years,they have been reborn and have also planted a seed for future listening.The variety of music styles will please everyone and the lyrics are so sensitive and witty that only the brain dead will fail to be thrilled.I hope I live many more years to follow their creativity.
Album of the year May 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
great album, funny lyrics. amazing after 20 sparks albums. album of the year, imo.
one advice, get the standard edition -- this special edition must be a joke or something, should be cheaper than the standard one. Get it only if you are a collector and must have both editions/covers
Three In a Row & All 5 Stars May 23, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Another fine album from Sparks. Balls was good wasn't it, but the last three albums from Sparks have been amazing. Most bands this far into a career in music are either repeating themselves or have just gone wrong. Sparks just seem to get stronger and stronger and this album shows the Mael fountain is still pure and gushing. "I Can't Believe That You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song", should be released as a single and it should be a number one song in 192 countries. I urge you to buy this album and all Sparks albums because you will be helping to make the world a more fascinating place. A place of beauty and joy and happiness. :-)
Put a smile on my face. No mean feat. May 21, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Well, they've done it again. I liked Lil'Beethoven. I loved Hello Young Lovers. I suspect I will soon be adoring Exotic Creatures of the Deep. It's a progression again, continuing the sound that the Mael's have defined over the last couple of records. There's humour, there's wit. There's catchy melodies and cleverly constructed meters. There's also a thematic sound. I'm not saying it all sounds the same, but almost like a concept album it's all coming from one place. The top layer is Russell's multi-tracked harmonies, like a choir of exotic angels, swooping through the repeating and repetitive rhythms of the lyrics. Below that is the beautifully constructed piano lines of Ron, counterbalancing his brother's melody. Then there's the sparse boom boom of tom-toms and the strains of cello in the bass, and violins through the treble.
The production is just beautiful, with an open and precise sound.
As with the last couple the biggest influence on the Mael sound (other than themselves) is Philip Glass, though there is also a heavy dose of Lou Reed in the Sprechgesang delivery of some of the verses. And I can also hear very clearly the influence of Brian Wilson's "Smile", especially in "The Director never yelled 'CUT!'" .
All in all, it is very easy to fall in love with this CD and it is destined never to recieve the acclaim or audience it deserves.
One point I would make is that the Special Edition (with Ron and Monkey on the cover) that I bought is anything BUT special. It's just a cheap cardboard sleeve for the CD and book, so assuming the regular edition has an actual CD case, I'd go for that one. And it's cheaper.
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