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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The final installment of Sparks' so-called 'British Trilogy', before they returned to the US is also in many ways the strangest and the strongest. It certainly contains all their hallmarks - mundane or lascivious lyrical content, a unique way with a rock arrangement, Russell Mael's trademark falsetto delivery - but the input of producer Tony Visconti has gone some way to making this a far more sonically interesting album. Jazz arrangements and flourishes show up in many of the songs, most explicitly in "Without Using Hands" and the singles "Get in the Swing" and "Looks, Looks, Looks", while the charming "Under The Table With Her" shows great sophistication in its string quartet arrangement. The lyrical content is also among the band's strongest and most diverse - the very un-PC "Happy Hunting Ground" bemoans the fact that it's harder to get girls now that school days are long gone, "Pineapple" is nothing more than a close-harmony tribute to the titular fruit... you get the idea. When put together, it's impossible to pigeonhole the result - it is pure Sparks, and as such should be an essential addition to any self-respecting CD collection. The addition of three excellent bonus tracks is simply the icing on the cake. --Thom Allott
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Growing up in the 80's in Los Angeles I discovered Sparks during there "Whomp that Sucker" and "Angst in my Pants" New Wave period. After the quality of the next two records dwindled, I kind of lost interest, until a girl I met in London turned me on to "Kimino my House" and "Propaganda". Here was the pure genius of Rock and Pop I'd been looking for! It was a little like Queen,The Sweet and Bowie but weirder and better! Then in the 90's I bought the rest of their records for my collection and "Indiscreet" was the strangest and most glorious one of all. A regal, let them eat cake, kind of record! "Happy Hunting Ground" is a blast of operatic, pop, rock pre-punk madness.!! "In the Future" pre-dates 80's new wave (and their own 80's song "I Predict") and "Tits" is a classic! If you're into Sparks, buy this genius record right away!!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Rating: 7.5/10
Best tracks: "Happy Hunting Ground", "Without Using Hands", "Hospitality on Parade", "The Lady is Lingering"
Before a comfort zone could even be designated, Sparks had already left it; it would have been easy (and commercially viable) to follow Kimono my House and Propaganda with another album of the same, but the Maels explore new territory with Indiscreet, most notably in the form of the two singles - "Get in the Swing" is a boisterous big-band sing-a-long, while "Looks, Looks, Looks" sounds as though it was made several decades earlier with its 1930's feel. Strange choices for singles, especially when the likes of "Happy Hunting Ground" and the exciting "How are You Getting Home?" are much more typical Sparks material. Good on the band for taking risks, even if "Looks, Looks, Looks" is more successful as pastiche rather than a great song. Some other songs follow the same suit; they're fantastically admirable in evoking other periods or in the way they embrace off-kilter genres, but as songs, they're not as quite top-drawer. A song like the French-flavoured "Under the Table with Her" gives off the same pastiche vibe, as does the slight "It Ain't 1918". Good, but not great songs.
Still, there's plenty here to savour; the first three songs in particular are stellar - "Hospitality on Parade" builds and builds to a fantastically crunching beat, "Happy Hunting Ground" is utterly thrilling, from its siren-call intro to its unstoppable chorus. "Without Using Hands" is beautifully odd and strange. Other gems include the slinky "The Lady is Lingering", which could almost be a James Bond theme, the short but spectacular "In the Future" with its high-pitched, delirious chorus, the drowsy ode to alcohol that is "Tits". A sprawling, ambitious album, not entirely successful, but always entertaining.
Best tracks: "Happy Hunting Ground", "Without Using Hands", "Hospitality on Parade", "The Lady is Lingering"
Before a comfort zone could even be designated, Sparks had already left it; it would have been easy (and commercially viable) to follow Kimono my House and Propaganda with another album of the same, but the Maels explore new territory with Indiscreet, most notably in the form of the two singles - "Get in the Swing" is a boisterous big-band sing-a-long, while "Looks, Looks, Looks" sounds as though it was made several decades earlier with its 1930's feel. Strange choices for singles, especially when the likes of "Happy Hunting Ground" and the exciting "How are You Getting Home?" are much more typical Sparks material. Good on the band for taking risks, even if "Looks, Looks, Looks" is more successful as pastiche rather than a great song. Some other songs follow the same suit; they're fantastically admirable in evoking other periods or in the way they embrace off-kilter genres, but as songs, they're not as quite top-drawer. A song like the French-flavoured "Under the Table with Her" gives off the same pastiche vibe, as does the slight "It Ain't 1918". Good, but not great songs.
Still, there's plenty here to savour; the first three songs in particular are stellar - "Hospitality on Parade" builds and builds to a fantastically crunching beat, "Happy Hunting Ground" is utterly thrilling, from its siren-call intro to its unstoppable chorus. "Without Using Hands" is beautifully odd and strange. Other gems include the slinky "The Lady is Lingering", which could almost be a James Bond theme, the short but spectacular "In the Future" with its high-pitched, delirious chorus, the drowsy ode to alcohol that is "Tits". A sprawling, ambitious album, not entirely successful, but always entertaining.
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
To me Indisceet was and is one of my favorite albums of all times. I adore the diversity of all the songs on here .....I love 'Looks, Looks, Looks and Hospitality on Parade...but my real loves are for the unusual. Without using Hands, brilliant, Under the table with Her.....fantastic....(is it from a dogs point of veiw or a childs...I havent worked that one out yet) It aint 1918, Rockabilly glam....They are really eye opening tracks. The only one I am not keen on is T*ts but I suppose that is cos I am a girly. (well maybe not so much of a girlie now as I bought the album when it first came out !!!)How are you getting home goes from smooth to rock in a blink of an eye, Miss the start Miss the End (for their such very good friends) was good .....Get in the Swing was bought out as a single....Pineapple .....very strange but okay ...The Lady is Lingering ...smooth as silk.....
I couple of years back I introduced a Canadian friend to this CD...he promptly pinched mine and I had to replace it!!! I didnt mind, its great to know that he was shouting about this album in the provences' LOL
Great CD thank you Ron and Russel
I couple of years back I introduced a Canadian friend to this CD...he promptly pinched mine and I had to replace it!!! I didnt mind, its great to know that he was shouting about this album in the provences' LOL
Great CD thank you Ron and Russel
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
increadible Sparks
This cd is an all time favourite of mine and is a timeless piece of work written by the "Mael"brothers ,how on earth Russell sings so high and at such length is beyond me ! Read more
Published 22 months ago by C. Manning
Goodbye, England...back to America.
Released in early Winter, 1975, this is one of those Sparks albums that demands...and gets...five stars. Read more
Published on 31 July 2009 by JUDE
A Happy Hunting Ground - in most parts
It's probably only because of my complete adolation for the splendour of the two Muff Winwood produced albums that preceded it (Propaganda was their high water mark for me) that,... Read more
Published on 25 April 2007 by Digger
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