However this thought came in my mind when I was reordering my "Best Of Sparks 90's/00's playlist" to create a more natural flow and I realised that going from "My Way" from Gratuitous Sax to "They Rhythm Thief" from Lil' Beethoven a bit jarring. Then in a brief of inspiration I put the snippet "Senseless violins" in between and that problem was solve.
"He came home
And instead of hearing the usual drums and bass
He heard
Violins, violins, violins
Senseless violins, senseless violins, senseless violins"
as horror music like violins are playing in the background
Isn't this a perfect segue-way into The Rhythm Thief and hence the Lil' Beethoven album? An album famous for lacking "drums and bass".
Imagine the power of hearing an album with a song like When Do I get to sing My way where the protagonist laments trying to please other people (trying to sell records and becoming popular instead of doing things you want to do). Album finish with them declaring that drum and bass is gone and the next album open up with "Rhythm Thief" with a unique orchestral-techno with violins driving the song essentially distancing themselves from the last 20 years of their career. That the band suddenly fulfilled their wishes of doing things "My Way" in the most epic way as possible. That would have been a much more powerful career narrative then Senseless Violins segueway into the strings arrangement of "Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat' which while appropriate, doesn't have the same emotional or symbolic impact as "The Rhythm Thief" (even though that arrangement is pretty great).
Of course some may argue that Plagiarism and Balls are transitional albums toward the classical influence Sparks of 00's. Plagiarism shows an increasing orchestral influence with their rearrangement of Pulling Rabbits and Change as well as strings being placed over "Number one in heaven" and "Never Turn Your back on mother earth". Balls has the repetitive techno elements but also supported with a more full arrangement with incorporating horns and strings into their conventional techno as well as multilayered vocals of the awesome "The Calm Before The Storm".
However this is one of the rare cases where the mere existence of transitional albums act as a detriment. After all the power behind "The Rhythm Thief" is how in an act of artistic independence throw away abandoning their past. It's impact would be greater as a shocking jump from Gratuitous Sax straight into Lil' Beethoven rather than having two albums inbetween that hinted to the future direction of the group.
In the end the songs of Plagiarism and Balls probably would have been better served via archival release rather than proper albums even as expensively unpractical as that sound. aThis is because Senseless Violins going straight to The Rhythm Thief is a more powerful statement than The Angels.
