Sparks - In The Swing (1993)

While first impressions impart just another budget-priced collection harking back to the Mael brothers' most golden years, In the Swing actually turns out to be a pretty useful primer, not only for Sparks' best known (1973-1976) output, but also for some of the less well-traveled corners of their oeuvre. Following Spectrum's standard policy of unearthing rarities, the soul of In the Swing is devoted to the B-sides and oddities that other CDs file away as bonus tracks -- which is grossly unfair to some of the sharpest songs in the band's repertoire. Certainly "I Like Girls," a Kimono My House outtake that remained unreleased for close to 20 years, should be heard by anyone who doubts that Sparks were a more than capable straight-ahead rock band when they put their minds to it, while the B-sides "Lost and Found" and "Marry Me" both have a charm that is all the more endearing for being so underplayed. Sparks' admittedly execrable orchestral assault on "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is at least a welcome inclusion for collectors, while the Indiscreet-era offcut "Gone With the Wind" is, contrarily, an absolute treasure, bristling with all the hallmarks of classic Sparks, at a time when they were doing their damnedest to avoid them. Of course, it's not all oddities. All six of Sparks' period hit singles are included, alongside the ever entertaining "Hasta Manana Monsieur"'s odyssey into the perils of dating intellectual foreigners: "you mentioned Kant and I was shocked...where I come from, girls don't have such foul tongues." Priceless.