Angst in My Pants

Artist: Sparks
Label: Oglio Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording reissued
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 790058160220
EAN: 0790058160220
ASIN: B00000DCU1

Release Date: 1998-11-17

Angst in My Pants

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Tracks:

Angst In My Pants
I Predict
Sextown U.S.A.
Sherlock Holmes
Nicotina
Mickey Mouse
Moustache
Instant Weight Loss
Tarzan And Jane
The Decline And Fall Of Me
Eaten By the Monster Of Love

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In Outer Space
Whomp That Sucker
Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat
Kimono My House
Indiscreet

Customer Reviews:

Terrifically Melodic and Funny.......2006-08-04

This 1982 release had catchy tunes and laugh-out-loud funny lyrics. Where else can you hear a dance song about moustaches (My Fu Manchu was real fine/My Ronald Coleman made 'em blink/My Pancho Villa made 'em think/But when I trimmed 'em real small/My Jewish friends would never call), Sherlock Holmes, Mickey Mouse, and the monster of love?

Sound quality is excellent, and the CD includes the lyrics.

Hark Hark It's Sparks!.......2006-05-27

This is the album that introduced me to the band. I haven't had a record player and this on vynil for well over 15 years. When I saw it was remasterd and reissued, I had to jump right on it!

I first heard 'Mickey Mouse' on Dr Demento when I was a wee lad. I bought the album and found that it was chocked from front to back with excellent songs. I like each and every one of them. I honestly feel that most of the tunes are singles material. I like every song. I had to blast MOUSTACHE at the park today, too.

Amazon shipped it super fast for only $2.50 more. WOW! That was like blinking and it was here.

Sprkling ol' Sparks.......2006-02-24

As good as their works of the Seventies. Never a frown with the Mael brothers

Love it!.......2006-01-10

This album is still cool!

WHO WEARS THE PANTS IN THIS FAMILY?!.......2005-10-09

Who Wears The Pants In This Family?

The lovely couple on this album cover has made perfect musical harmony once again, and it sure looks like they enjoyed their Niagara Falls honeymoon as illustrated in a scintillating photo on the inner sleeve! However, we are not fooled by this deceptive depiction into believing that Russell actually wears the pants in the Mael family. Although he is trying to feign purity and virtue, it is indeed the unshaven Mael order bride who is behind all this madness!

To start off the 80's with their focus back on America, Sparks returned to a rockier, guitar-oriented sound imbued with danceability. They even returned to the five-piece band format, including the Bates Motel band; Les Boheme on bass, Bob Haag on guitar, David Kendrick on drums and James Goodwin on synth. Giorgio Moroder's protégé Mack programmed some minimal, yet punctual synthesizers, giving the album a built-in revved-up engine. In 1982 Angst In My Pants on Atlantic records became Sparks' first U.S. top 100 album. The single "I Predict" garnered significant airplay, especially on the west coast on good old KROQ.

The peculiarly provocative video for "I Predict" was banned by MTV, not for its bizarre sexual content, but for the political incorrectness of Ron's moustache! They were completely off target...nobody was looking at his moustache! We were utterly distracted by all the sexual energy Ron was radiating onstage at the strip club in his corset and feather boa! Despite the M.T.V. (Moustache Too Vulgar) video veto, the single reached #60 in the U.S. charts in March of 1982. The video was finally reinstated - for late night viewing only - on MTV the following summer.

During Sparks' television appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live (May 15, 1982) Ron recited a lengthy monologue on the rodent species, prefacing the song "Mickey Mouse". The band also performed their new single, the uncanny "I Predict". Ron's now infamous shuffle, then in its infancy, had its monumental TV debut on this show!

Sparks performed "I Predict" (as `Bandstanders' might say, "It has a good beat, but you can't dance to it!) and " Eaten By The Monster of Love" on American Bandstand in September of 1982 - Sparks' third of six appearances on that legendary show. Russell defined the word `angst' to host Dick Clark as, "A German word meaning problems or stress, but in this case, in the pants region."

In Russell's opinion at the time, this was the most `pleasant' Sparks album to listen to. He varied his vocal range throughout, and the tunes were less complex - even catchy. American radio appreciated the album and actually played it! However, there were those who were disappointed in Sparks' return to a full band format, and the gripes would continue when the band would again waver to a more electronic sound. You just can't win!

Sparks toured America throughout the summer of '82. They also supported Rick Springfield on his U.S. tour. Russell sparkled in a glistening sequined suit (the colour varied at each gig). Ron, the mysterious deadpan figure, usually firmly planted behind his keyboards, now began to nurture his inner child which emerged in a scary, full drag strip-tease in the David Lynch directed "I Predict" video (not a pretty sight), in a wedding gown on the album's cover and in several quirky stage routines including a wacky shuffle and tap dance, and a mime to Abbott & Costello's `Who's On First?' routine with a stuffed toy dog (at Hollywood's Whiskey A Go Go). Things were looking up!

The album's opening title track features Russell singing in what might possibly be his lowest register, then bringing it up an octave to stress that even YOU may very well be inadvertently sitting on some angst! After an intro that sounds like a steamship's horn, the melody and instrumentation are simple and sparse, yet beautiful. Who else would write such a happy-go-lucky song about a certain gravity-defying male reflex? The Maels told America's Trouser Press magazine in November, 1982 that Ron came up with the melody at the last minute. Ron plays every instrument on the track except for David Kendrick's drum tape loop. The song was mixed and completed in just one day!

In "I Predict" Russell portrays a pretentious clairvoyant. Sparks had usually been quite accurate in predicting future musical climates and beating everyone to the punch. In this song they seem to have delusional visions of psychic grandeur, but who knows, maybe cold beer and pretzels really do cure cancer! Has anybody ever tried it? The catchy hand-clapping beat and heavy bass drum get your feet tapping in no time. They should play this one in baseball stadiums instead of Queen's "We Will Rock You".

"Sextown U.S.A." is the precursor to "All You Ever Think About is Sex" on the next album. Both songs are about, um...sex, and they concur that sex is fun in a variety of locations. These are Sparks' most straight-forward lyrics and they have received no arguments to date.

The Maels seem somewhat envious of the supposedly sexy sleuth in "Sherlock Holmes". Where did they get the foggy notion that Sherlock impressed women? Hey Ron & Russ, here's a bit of advice; there are a lot of guys out there right now telling their girlfriends, "I can't sing like Russell Mael, I can't write songs like Ron Mael, just pretend I'm Russell Mael, uh oh, uh oh, yeah." So just go with what you've got! You are SPARKS! What could be cooler than that! Just use your old trusty pick-up line, "Kimono my house, mon amour!" Women will surely melt in your arms. There is some sort of synthesized wind instrument sound on this one, impersonating a flute perhaps? Anyway, it's quite effective and the middle eight is pure Sparks!

The Surgeon General could have used "Nicotina" as his mascot. Who wouldn't sympathize with this poor little burnt-out cigarette and quit smoking pronto! She was so cute until the Marlboro man inhaled her. The melody seems to be Russian derived and has some wicked guitar work by Bob Haag.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse and all their pals run rampant in a paradise where animals are people too, in a tribute to Disneyland. The next song is dedicated to the power of the "Moustache" and how it makes a man, commands respect, alienates a certain religious group and (unfortunately) reveals what a man has ingested for lunch. Another upbeat tune to which Ron shaves his off completely in the video. Parenthetically, he grew it back again!

"Instant Weight Loss" becomes `instant weight gain' in case anyone didn't know. It's zoo time once again on "Tarzan And Jane" when Chemistry class degenerates into de-evolution with a tribal drumbeat. It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

In "The Decline and Fall of Me" our singer is reduced to a bumbling idiot in an unwarranted tale of low self esteem. The poor guy has even started a collection of frozen pizzas! This song contains the following stunning couplet;
" Where's my mouth, man, this eating is rough on the shirts
Gee, I'm sorry about the thermometer, nurse."

There are very few Sparks songs containing the word `love' and the single, "Eaten By The Monster Of Love" is one of them. It's not really about `love'. It's more about the `monster' with graphic descriptions of what he'll do to you and how to avoid him. A fun party song, if you're going to a strange party. This song, along with the title track was featured on the Valley Girl film soundtrack.

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