"Suburban Homeboy" b/w "Wunderbar (Concerto In Koch Minor)" Released: March 24, 2003
Lil' Beethoven is the nineteenth studio album by the American rock band Sparks, released on October 14, 2002. Written and produced by members Ron and Russell Mael, and self-described as their "genre-defying opus", the album was considered a radical musical departure from their recent work, which had been predominately electronic and beat-orientated in nature.
On Lil' Beethoven, the duo started afresh, downplaying rhythm and employing repetitive song structures reminiscent of minimalist music, as well as making extensive use of piano, choral voices, and orchestral sounds, with live drums and percussion only used sparingly. The duo have stated that despite the album's references to classical music, including composer Ludwig van Beethoven in its title and the use of symphonic textures, they did not set out to create a 'pseudo-classical' record, and that it was more an exercise in how big and aggressive they could sound with very basic elements.[4]
Upon its release, Lil' Beethoven received critical acclaim in the UK and the US, who praised its challenging and innovative sound, and helped to bring renewed interest in the band internationally. Sparks took an equally idiosyncratic approach to promoting the album live: the first half of the set consisted of the album performed in its entirety, with the band incorporating performance art and screen projections, followed by a more standard greatest hits set in the second half. Only one single, "Suburban Homeboy", was taken from the album. In 2004, a performance at the Södra Teatern in Stockholm, Sweden was filmed and released on DVD as Lil Beethoven - Live in Stockholm.[5]
Background
By 2002, Sparks had released eighteen albums, the last several of them in the new wave/synthpop vein. While this had been successful, breaking them in the United States with 1983's "Cool Places" and in Germany with "When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" in 1995, it had not secured them much critical acclaim or a consistent audience. 1997's Plagiarism, which consisted entirely of new recordings of earlier material, had been intended to introduce the group's back catalog to their new German audience, while building on the success with high-profile collaborations for the UK and US audience. It had only been partially successful.
The next album, Balls, had not been at all successful and was generally perceived as Sparks treading water.[6] The duo had already written an entire album's worth of material for a follow-up, but were unenthusiastic with the results and the project was scrapped.
In 2001, the Maels were commissioned by a German broadcasting company to produce a song for Günther Koch Revisited (Voll In Den Mann), an album that featured samples of sports commentator Günther Koch set to music. The band's contribution, "Wunderbar", looped Koch's highly-spirited exclamations over an orchestral backing. The duo said that making the track provided them a blueprint for the direction that they would take on Lil' Beethoven.[7]
Recording
As has been the case with each Sparks album since 1988's Interior Design, Lil' Beethoven was self-produced by the duo and recorded in Russell Mael's home studio in Los Angeles. Work on the album was an intensive process, as the Maels refrained from using drum loops and samples and built up to 75 tracks of vocals and orchestration for each song. Ron Mael stated they packed about "five years' worth of work into one year" and that there were "a lot of dark alleys and false starts" during the recording, which Sparks attributed to having no pre-written material prior to entering the studio.[8] The most crucial change was the elimination of rhythm, replaced with "massive, aggressive" multi-tracked vocals. A Yamaha S80 synthesizer was used to program the orchestral arrangements on Lil' Beethoven, with Ron Mael attributing its built-in arpeggiator as a major component of the sound.[4]
Sound
Described by the band themselves as a "career-defining opus", Lil' Beethoven saw the duo move into a more orchestral sound, with a heavy reliance on repetitive lyrics and piano lines, synthesized instrumentation and multi-tracked vocals in place of percussion, reminiscent of the minimalist works of composers such as John Adams and Steve Reich.[9] Opening track "The Rhythm Thief" serves as a manifesto to the band's new direction by declaring "say goodbye to the beat". "My Baby's Taking Me Home" largely consists of the title repeated over 100 times with no other words being used, other than a spoken interlude.[10] Similarly, "Your Call Is Very Important To Us" uses a corporation style call-hold message: "Your call is very important to us. Please hold" which is then sung with some additional words: "At first she said your call is very important to us, then she said please, please hold." The only other lyrics in the song are "Red light", "Green light", "I'm getting mixed signals" and "Sorry, I'm going to have to put you back on hold". These elements are layered with a simple piano line to create a highly textured effect.[11]
Reflecting on the album's creation, Ron Mael stated it changed the way they approached their songwriting: "The thinking behind that album was we wondered if there was a way to have an aggressive kind of sound that wasn't using guitars. We weren't out to make some sort of pseudo-classical album at all. We had written a lot of songs previous to that that were gonna be our next album, and we kind of felt that maybe we were just going through the motions and that we really had to rethink things. So we went at that album from the start without any songs. We usually go into our studio with songs, at least in some kind of way, but this time we went in just using the instruments and saw what we could come up with. I mean, I know that's the way a lot of people work anyway, but to us, that was new. We were able to then work backwards and figure out vocals that would go with different things.”[4]
Release
Sparks released Lil' Beethoven through their own Lil' Beethoven imprint. In the UK, it was distributed by FullFill, who had ties with Universal Music Group, and was released in a limited edition which had hardcover book binding. In the US, it was distributed by Palm Pictures, the then-company of Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who had signed Sparks back in 1974. Before the album's official release, the duo had planned to release the album as Entertainment in Extremis, with Lil' Beethoven being the artist's name rather than Sparks, but eventually decided against it.
Lil' Beethoven, while critically acclaimed, did not chart inside the top 100 in the UK, Germany or the US. The album was promoted by the single "Suburban Homeboy" but it, too, did not chart. The single was backed two b-sides, an extended version of "Suburban Homeboy", entitled "Suburban Homeboy (Extended 'Ron Speaks' Version)", and "Wunderbar (Concerto In Koch Minor)", which samples the voice of German sports commentator Günther Koch.
Re-releases
In March 2004, Sparks re-issued Lil' Beethoven in a deluxe edition. This version had a black sleeve as opposed to the white original, and included three audio tracks (two of which were exclusive), a video of "The Rhythm Thief" (directed by long-time collaborators Kuntzel+Deygas), a short film by Ron Mael, and a screensaver. An LP version of the album (which did not include any bonus tracks) was also released at the same time.
A DVD produced by Demon Vision was also released of a live performance of the album. The live performance was filmed in March 2004 at the Södra Teatern in Stockholm, Sweden. The DVD features the album performed in full and in order, followed by a set of twelve other Sparks songs.
In April 2022, a remastered Lil' Beethoven was issued on LP and CD as part of the "21st Century Sparks" collection. The CD included the same bonus tracks as the 2004 reissue and two additional tracks.[12] This time the album charted, entering the UK independent albums top 50 at no. 8.[13]
The album was critically applauded, which led to renewed interest in the band. In a review titled "What the world’s been waiting for—Sparks’ very own Kid A", Mojo praised the album as being "an audacious mélange of crafty lyrics and beguilingly repetitive orchestral melodies.[15]Record Collector magazine named the album as one of its Best New Albums of 2002, describing it as "possibly the most exciting and interesting release ever from such a long established act",[16] and later in 2003 saying "it really does feel like one of the best albums ever recorded."[10] In a four out of five star review, AllMusic declared: "it feels like you're listening to another record entirely -- every time you play it. And that is the magic of Lil' Beethoven."[14] When it was released in 2003 in the US, PopMatters wrote that Lil' Beethoven was "brilliant". "It may take a few listens to get there, because this is unlike any record that you're likely to hear this year".[17] In an enthusiastic review, Rolling Stone pictured the album as "nine songs of lethal grandeur built from [...] swollen waves of strings and fistfuls of piano and [...] one-man operatic chorales". Reviewer David Frickle said the album was a "perfect cocktail", remarking that there was virtually no rock guitar apart for one song, before concluding "Trust me: It's not a problem".[18]The List praised it as a "fantastic record", for its "grand symphonic sweep of piano-based orchestral music."[19]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Ron Mael and Russell Mael
Side one
No.
Title
Length
1.
"The Rhythm Thief"
5:18
2.
"How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?"
3:50
3.
"What Are All These Bands So Angry About?"
3:32
4.
"I Married Myself"
4:59
5.
"Ride 'Em Cowboy"
4:20
Side two
No.
Title
Length
6.
"My Baby's Taking Me Home"
4:42
7.
"Your Call's Very Important To Us. Please Hold."
4:11
8.
"Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls"
7:06
9.
"Suburban Homeboy"
2:58
Deluxe edition bonus tracks (2004)
No.
Title
Length
10.
"The Legend Of Lil' Beethoven"
2:06
11.
"Wunderbar (Concerto In Koch Minor)"
3:54
12.
"The Rhythm Thief (Instrumental Version)"
5:24
13.
"The Rhythm Thief" (Video)
14.
"Inspiration Behind Lil' Beethoven: "Fear of a Blank Page"" (Visual)
