An acquaintance recently described the music of art-pop duo Sparks to me this way: “Think like over-the-top insane dudes, making giant almost operatic opuses but with lyrical content not that much different than your typical indie rock song. It’s kind of insane glam but with a heart.”

I was skeptical … but after listening to this track Perfume about, oooooh, 27 times on Wednesday, I’m sold. Crazy thing is, the pair – brothers Ron and Russell Mael – have been around since the ’70s, yet this is the first I’d heard of them. Learn something new every day. And that’s the beauty of the blogs … expanding my horizons.

At heart, Perfume, from the LP Hello Young Lovers (due for U.S. release in March I believe), is pretty basic in its intent: He wants to spend the rest of his life with this girl because “you don’t wear no perfume.” It’d be wholly ridiculous if the musical composition weren’t absolutely pop greatness.

Perhaps my favorite line:

“The olfactory sense is the sense
that most strongly evokes
memories of the past …
Well, screw the past.”

Listen to the bass and piano lines. Even if you find the lyrics laughable or pretentious, there is no denying the near-perfect pop construction of the instrumentation.

The great Marathonpacks has another mp3 from the album here.

Sparks | Perfume

Also …

After two months of not being able to sign on to MySpace, I’m baaaaaack. Hit me up!

We also created a page for our iSpin night, which is now a week out, here. On that note, we have an amazing sponsor on board: iLounge.com, the site for all things iPod. Give them a visit. iLounge is graciously providing iTunes gift cards for the best three sets of the evening. Time to ramp it up!