Is it a hit, *hit or miss?

Sparks - Li�l Beethoven by Dan Grote

Sparks - Li�l Beethoven 
Label: Palm Pictures
Rating: 

The second line of Li�l Beethoven�s opening track, �The Rhythm Thief,� sums up the album thusly: �Say goodbye to the beat.� And, true to its word, the production duo that is Sparks have put out an album that�s sorely lacking in the booming bass and time-keeping drumwork that would otherwise create said rhythm or beat. 

And yet, the music is very similar to that ultimate beat-keeping genre, Techno, in so far as being chock full of brain-numbing repetition. Truth be told, it takes a strong stomach to get past the neo-classical looping of �The Rhythm Thief,� its successor track, �How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall?� and several of the other seven tracks that make up the onus of self-admitted �musical overkill� that is Li�l Beethoven, an oeuvre that seems to also have said goodbye to the idea of verses between choruses in addition to the beat.

However, once you get past the blustering orchestrations and bass-free refrains, there are some bits of humor to be found. �I Married Myself� is a more flat-out tongue-in-cheek number that seems to model itself after McCartney�s early solo work, sort of a cross between �Silly Love Songs� and �Uncle Albert.� Then there is �Ugly Guys with Beautiful Girls,� a song with time-tested subject matter that paraphrases Joe Jackson�s classic pop ditty �Is She Really Going out with Him?� and adds scream effects and a spoken word interlude. However, nothing tops the musical theatre vibe of �Suburban Homeboy,� a song-and-dance piece with lyrics like �I bought me cornrows on Amazon, I started listening to Farrakhan, My caddy and me, he looks just like Jay-Z� and a closing flourish that evokes, if nothing else, the image of a chorus line of yuppies flashing their jazz hands.

VERDICT: A classical rebellion against pop music? A vanity project for a musical Kaufman and Zmuda? Humor for the most pretentious of ears? All of these could describe Sparks� music on their latest effort, but there is some mainstream humor to be found on Li�l Beethovenl; it�s just that you�re expected to work for it to find it, to get past the gnawing repetitions of the first few tracks to get to the more straightforward outlandishness of �Ugly Guys with Beautiful Girls� and �Suburban Homeboy.� Perhaps the true question is whether or not you are up to the challenge of Sparks, and, more importantly, if you�re willing to shell out your own cash for music that�s part experimental and part mental endurance challenge.