This is the much hyped Sparks documentary by Edgar Wright who is known for the Cornetto Trilogy. Edgar is a self professed fan of the band, who to the majority are equally famous for the track This Town Aint Big Enough and the Hitler moustache/evil stare of one of the band members.
In terms of music docs it starts off pretty standard with a background of the brothers family life, school and early career. Where this doc deviates however is the fact that this attempts to cover every one of the bands twenty plus album releases. Despite being a very lengthy doc it doesn't really cover any of the music in any depth.
I came away from this doc not really knowing any of the tracks covered during the running time. So while it may be entertaining for fans to hear snippets of the tracks, there is nothing really here for those who don't already know the music. This doc may not produce more Sparks fans.
While its not a spoiler to mention that Sparks played a series of concerts where they played in sequence their entire catalogue, it makes me wonder if the reason every album release was mentioned was the reason the doc also covered every release?
Sparks come across as highly talented and with the highest levels of artistic integrity possible, they made the music they wanted regardless of fan service. Of course a band with this approach will have fairly inconsistent levels of commercial success, one result of this is an ever changing band line up, a bit like The Fall. However unlike The Fall these ex band members reflect positively of their experience playing with Sparks.
This is an entertaining journey however there is probably a 90 min tighter edit or even another type of Sparks doc out there. Too many interesting stories are simply revealed and then your onto the next thing. Too much is simply crammed in. There is probably a full length doc about their marathon concert run that could be produced?
This is maybe only for Sparks die hards or for music fans with a short attention span. This doc barely scratches the surface of the music and the brothers remain an enigma......
In terms of music docs it starts off pretty standard with a background of the brothers family life, school and early career. Where this doc deviates however is the fact that this attempts to cover every one of the bands twenty plus album releases. Despite being a very lengthy doc it doesn't really cover any of the music in any depth.
I came away from this doc not really knowing any of the tracks covered during the running time. So while it may be entertaining for fans to hear snippets of the tracks, there is nothing really here for those who don't already know the music. This doc may not produce more Sparks fans.
While its not a spoiler to mention that Sparks played a series of concerts where they played in sequence their entire catalogue, it makes me wonder if the reason every album release was mentioned was the reason the doc also covered every release?
Sparks come across as highly talented and with the highest levels of artistic integrity possible, they made the music they wanted regardless of fan service. Of course a band with this approach will have fairly inconsistent levels of commercial success, one result of this is an ever changing band line up, a bit like The Fall. However unlike The Fall these ex band members reflect positively of their experience playing with Sparks.
This is an entertaining journey however there is probably a 90 min tighter edit or even another type of Sparks doc out there. Too many interesting stories are simply revealed and then your onto the next thing. Too much is simply crammed in. There is probably a full length doc about their marathon concert run that could be produced?
This is maybe only for Sparks die hards or for music fans with a short attention span. This doc barely scratches the surface of the music and the brothers remain an enigma......