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Jul 06, 2020 Sparks By Samantha Small

Los Angeles brother duo, Sparks ( Ron and Russell Mael) released a new album, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip, in May via BMG. To follow in the fun, they recently shared a wacky video for track “Existential Threat.” Watch the video below.

The video was animated by Cyriak, a digital artist known for his “surreal and bizarre short web animations frequent use of the Droste effect.” To be sure, there is no shortage of bizarre and surreal in “Existential Threat.” Musically, think torture circus. Cagey drums, descending and ascending brass, anxious, almost frantic singing. From there, add on a video with human-like faces on cartoon bodies (with their eyes bulging, out of course), garbage monsters, plane crashes, cities on fire, and to top it all off a volcano eruption and meteor attack. And that’s just scratching the surface. You’re just going to have to watch the full thing to see what I’m talking about.

Back in December Sparks shared the album’s first single, “Please Don’t Fuck Up My World.” Then they shared another song from it, “Self-Effacing,” via a lyric video, along with “Lawnmower.” They also shared the album’s “One For the Ages” and “I’m Toast.” The album became available on vinyl, CD, and cassette on last week.

There are also other exciting 2020 projects in the works for the duo, including a documentary on the band directed by British auteur Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver) and a musical film, Annette, directed by Leos Carax (Holy Motors), starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, written by Sparks, and with music and songs written by Sparks for the film. They previously shared a quirky announcement video for everything.

Sparks’ last album was 2017’s Hippopotamus. In 2015 Sparks teamed up with Scotland’s Franz Ferdinand as FFS and released their self-titled debut album.

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