Sparks

About

Also known as: Halfnelson, The Sparks

Ron and Russell Mael have been pulling off an improbable trick for over five decades: making art pop that is genuinely strange but also genuinely catchy. The brothers, who perform as Sparks, built their reputation on the tension between Russell's manic, wide ranging vocals and Ron's famously stone faced keyboard work. That combination landed them a UK No. 2 hit with the glam rock track "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" in 1974, and they kept pivoting, scoring disco hits with Giorgio Moroder in 1979, charting across Europe through the 1990s, and releasing the orchestral oddity Lil' Beethoven in 2002, which they called their genre defining opus. More recently, the duo co wrote every song for the Leos Carax musical film Annette, winning a César Award for Best Original Music in 2021, the same year Edgar Wright devoted a full documentary to their career. Their 2020 album A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip hit the UK Top 10, and their 25th studio album The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte followed in 2023 on Island Records, also entering the UK Albums Chart at No. 7. Their album Mad!, released in May 2025, reached No. 2 on the UK chart, their highest ever position.