Halfnelson＜Purple Opaque Vinyl＞

The first Sparks album by any other name, this then-curious offering hit American stores in 1970, flopped around unnoticed for a few months, and was then repackaged under the now-familiar new band name -- at which point it promptly spawned a hit single. "Wonder Girl" topped the local chart in Montgomery County, AL. "They were a funny band," producer Todd Rundgren once mused, "and a lot of their stuff was strange, the words were strange and the whole approach was very left field." It would take several years more before the Mael brothers' quirky visions even began to connect with the mainstream and, if reports from the actual recording sessions are to be believed, a less strong-willed overseer might have allowed them to stray from even the furthest reaches of contemporary credibility. As it is, Halfnelson remains an uncompromising vision, as "the hit" was joined by the spookily tuneful "Fletcher Honorama," the Russell Mael vocal showcase "High C," and guitarist Earle Mankey's "Biology 2," a love song for chromosomes. "Oh hold me," pipes Mael, "You know you are my one and only phenotype and together we can have a genotype." Weird and wonderful, then, but if you have the first Sparks album, you already knew that. Seek out this version for its collectibility, and wonder whether the band would ever have gotten so far if it hadn't changed its name. ~ Dave Thompson