Be Glad! Sparks’ New Record, MAD!, Is a Triumph
- Josh Kitchen
- May 23
- 3 min read
Updated: May 23
By: Josh Kitchen / May 23, 2025
It seems like the world has finally caught on to Sparks. The Mael Brothers, Ronald and Russell, have released their 28th studio album, MAD!, out today, and it's another great addition to their extensive and impressive discography. MAD! comes fifty-three years after their self-titled debut (originally titled Halfnelson, their original band name). Sparks has been making out-there, obscure, hilarious, and absolutely integral pop music for over half a century! What a miracle! You could make a greatest hits disc collection of the band with 20 discs, and only include music from their catalogue over the last decade.
Sparks' output since 2017 has been wildly impressive, starting with the superb Hippopotamus, then 2020's A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip, which includes tracks like “All That” and “I'm Toast” that stack up among their most iconic. Then in 2021, the Edgar Wright-directed documentary The Sparks Brothers was released, and interest in Sparks hit a new high — the band was actually garnering a cultural interest and significance any band would have killed for, let alone a band 45 years into their career. Following the movie, they released the bizarre musical epic Annette, whose opening track “So May We Start” should have gotten the band their first Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
At this point, most bands might call it quits, kick their feet up, and revel in their hard-earned rewards, but the Mael brothers put out The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte in 2023, the title track’s music video featuring Cate Blanchett turning in an iconic dance performance — and now their new album, MAD!. What makes being a Sparks fan so fun is they truly are a band that can continue to surprise you after all these years — the surprise for me being that they are still making integral, interesting, and irreverent songs just as exciting as their classics like “Amateur Hour,” “When I’m With You,” and “Cool Places.”
MAD! continues the trend of the last couple records mentioned above, and finds new ways to pull the listener in — interesting hooks, singing by Russell that is better than ever, and enough crisp and infectious beats and keyboard playing by Ron to stand among Sparks' very best records. Preceded by four fantastic singles, including “Jansport Backpack,” “Do Things My Own Way,” and “My Devotion,” the rest of the album is just as good. “Jansport Backpack” is a great example of what Sparks does better than anybody — it takes something mundane that people take for granted and turns it into epic pop art that you want to keep singing along to for days.
“Do Things My Own Way” is as good as anything off Kimono My House, No. 1 in Heaven, or Indiscreet — a pulsing and droning album opener that sets the stage for the whole thing. The music video is excellent and was directed by Sparks super-fan and LA visual medium icon, Ambar Navarro (see other fantastic videos by Navarro for Weyes Blood, The Lemon Twigs, Spellling, and another track off MAD! - "Drowned in a Sea of Tears.") The hilarious “I-405 Rules” and “A Little Bit of Light Banter” round out the record. We are blessed to have Ron and Russell Mael still in our lives, giving us their art. The brothers are both close to 80, and they show no signs of slowing down, starting a new world tour that will make its hometown stop in LA at the Greek Theatre on September 30. You don’t want to miss it.
Listen to MAD! below, and buy tickets to the Greek!
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