There is a lot of background narrative, but not being emotionally invested in the Sparks at this point, it’s mostly wasted on me. The editing style of intersplicing old clips to tell the story might have been novel had it been used sparingly, but they chose to back the truck up for this documentary.
Meanwhile, bits and pieces of their music are being played between the lavish praises of industry insiders. They are creaming their bellbottoms over how incredible and life changing it all is. I’m like “meh”. Am I missing the joke? Did they make a documentary about a fictional mediocre band to see if people would pretend to like Sparks music because so-called experts are telling them it’s good?
Let’s be honest. If their music was actually as good as all these musicians and the documentary say it was, they would have been more popular and people would play their albums. They don’t. The music isn’t that great. They are the answer to the question: “What if Queen wasn’t very good?”
To be fair, I did recognize the song “Cool Places” about 90 minutes in. I’d completely forgotten about that song until now. And any collaboration with Franz Ferdinand is going to be good. It’s a shame Sparks spent so much of their career seemingly trying to displease their fans.
Rating: C-
