There’s something almost magical about the way Sparks keep reinventing themselves. Half a century into their career, the Mael brothers still write with the curiosity of artists who’ve only just discovered how thrilling it feels to defy expectation.
Their latest release, MADDER!, the first EP of their nearly three decades fo albums, isn’t a continuation of their album MAD! (May 2025), but a mirror tilted at a new angle that just so happens to catch the light from different corners of their wonderful imaginations and creativity.
Where MAD! felt like a grand statement, MADDER! is intimate chaos. The four tracks shine with mischief, melancholy, and just maybe a bit of mayhem. Distinct with a mix of Maels’ wit, theatre, and restless humanity, the songs twist and shimmer like ideas in mid-formation. They’re unfinished in the most deliberate and human way and speak to the compulsion of creating even after the applause fades. They ask “what next?” long after everyone else would’ve stopped.
Listening to MADDER! is like eaves dropping on two old friends who’ve lived a thousand artistic lives still trying to surprise each other. Ron’s meticulous compositions meet Russell’s theatrical delivery in a dance that feels familiar yet freshly absurd. Beneath their eccentricity lies something tender and a belief that art is only as alive as its willingness to risk being misunderstood.
In a time when reinvention sometimes feels performative, Sparks remind us that for some, it’s simply the natural order and that madness can be magnificent. MADDER! isn’t a coda but merely another spark in a fire that refuses to burn out.
EDITOR’S NOTE: artist stylises their name, album, and/or songs, in lowercase or uppercase letters
