Sparks, have released “JanSport Backpack,” the second single from their upcoming album, MAD!, and announce the album will be released May 23rd via Transgressive Records.

Ron Mael is one of our most acutely perceptive observers of social mores. In a different discipline – dramaturg, cartoonist, novelist, cineaste, chronicler – he’d be a Moliere, a Hogarth, a Fitzgerald, an Altman, a Swift. He just happens to work within the medium of popular song. His brother Russell Mael has the asset of a talent to put those observations across in a uniquely arresting manner, captivating as a frontman and gifted with a countertenor voice of extraordinary range. The alchemy between Ron on keys and Russell on vocals – Two Hands, One Mouth, to invoke the name of one of their tours – is simply what they do. And they’ve rarely done it better than onMAD!.

MAD! finds Ron and Russell examining cultural phenomena such as branded backpacks, tattoos, performative devotion (whether to a God, a lover, a celebrity or a sports team), the hegemony of banter, and the rise of influencers. The satire is never on-the-nose, always retaining enough ambiguity for the listener to fill in the blanks. And the exquisitely unusual lexicon (you won’t hear the word “epistemology” on many other albums this year) and cultural references (“Howard Hughes in Jordan 2s” on the previously released lead single “Do Things My Own Way”).

Sparks
MAD!
Tracklisting
Transgressive

1. Do Things My Own Way
2. JanSport Backpack
3. Hit Me, Baby
4. Running Up A Tab At The Hotel For The Fab
5. My Devotion
6. Don’t Dog It
7. In Daylight
8. I-405 Rules
9. A Long Red Light
10. Drowned In A Sea Of Tears
11. A Little Bit Of Light Banter
12. Lord Have Mercy

Sparks 2025 Tour Dates

Sun. June 8 – Kyoto, JP @ ROHM Theatre
Tue. June 10 – Osaka, JP @ Zepp Namba
Thu. June 12 – Fri. June 13 – Tokyo, JP @ EX Theater
Wed. June 18 – Thu. June 19 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
Sat. June 21 – Sun. June 22 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
Tue. June 24 – Glasgow, UK @ Royal Concert Hall
Thu. June 26 – Haarlem, NL @ PHIL Haarlem
Sat. June 28 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
Mon. June 30 – Paris, FR @ La Salle Pleyel
Tue. July 1 – Cologne, DE @ Gloria-Theater
Thu. July 3 – Copenhagen, DK @ The Koncerthuset
Fri. July 4 – Stockholm, SE @ Grona Lund Tivoli
Sun. July 6 – Berlin, DE @ Uber Eats
Tue. July 8 – Milan, IT @ Teatro degli Arcimboldi

Pre-order MAD! by Sparks HERE