Now entering their sixth decade of steady musical production, Sparks—brothers Ron and Russell Mael’s remarkably enduring musical project—has proved equally alienating to multiple generations of American listeners no matter what phase they were in. During the very first days of MTV, clips for their Moroder-produced “No. 1 Song in Heaven” and “Try-Outs for the Human Race” were in regular rotation (if only because there was so little else to show). But when not involuntarily exposed to them, American audiences rejected Sparks whether in their glam, disco, ’90s synth or 2002-and-onwards minimalist keyboard-loops periods—especially true of the latter, their longest-lasting mode to […]