Spark in the Dark

Description

Spark in the Dark is the sophomore album by the American rock combo The Alpha Band, released on Arista Records in 1977, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures Industries. The album was recorded by Larry Hirsch at Paramount Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California; with band member Steven Soles producing.

IT’S ONLY WORDS: Sure, we know. You rarely, if ever, bother to listen to song lyrics anymore. You figure they’re all June-moon-spoon retreads and endless “I love you, baby’s,” save for an occasional Springsteen or Browne or Newman. But hold on: we’ve found a couple of new records with lyrics that merit some real attention. Take the Alpha Band, f’rinstance. These guys – Stephen Soles, T-Bone Burnett and David Mansfield – can not only play and sing up a storm, they’re writing some of the most intriguing lyrics around. In their new “Spark In the Dark” album, they manage to finesse such rhymes as “valuable” and “malleable,” lines like “Your truth’s reduced to an organ of technology . . . to nefarious hypocrisy’ (the latter from Burnett’s title tune, subtitled “On the Moody Existentialist”) and descriptions including “sharks in the air” and “cossack children of the bourgeoisie.” And that’s only the beginning: the album’s tour de force is «Silver Mantis», an elaborate Oriental vignette detailing the unrequited love affair of Sashiko (who was “carried in a hammock draped and veiled”) and Seito (who “happened on the scene of her abduction” and “sent her captors to their graves”). Weighty stuff, that. [Record World, October 22, 1977 (An excerpt from The Coast, a column by Samuel Graham and Sam Sutherland)]

> Apple Music. (https://music.apple.com/us/album/spark-in-the-dark/1309735047)

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “East Of East” – 3:10
A2. “Born In Captivity” – 3:44
A3. “Blue Lonely Night” – 3:26
A4. “Silver Mantis” – 6:35
A5. “Honey Runs” (Instrumental) – 3:11

Side Two
B1. “Adrenalin” – 2:51
B2. “You Angel You” – 2:44
B3. “Not Everything Has A Price” – 2:40
B4. “Love And Romance” – 2:50
B5. “Mystified” – 2:36
B6. “Spark In The Dark (On The Moody Existentialist)” – 4:18
B7. “Jazz Hymn” (Instrumental) – 1:52

Note: Simultaneously released on 8-track tape, cassette, and 12-inch vinyl LP by Arista Records. Re-issued by Acadia in 2005 as a part of the 2CD The Arista Albums.

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CREDITS. Produced by Steven Soles. Recorded by Larry Hirsch at Paramount Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, assisted by Mitch Gibson. Directed by Bob Neuwirth. Photographs by Ron Cooper. Art Direction by Jim Ganzer. This music is humbly offered in the light of The Triune God.

Musicians: The Alpha Band – Steven Soles (Vocals, Guitar, Piano), T-Bone Burnett (Vocals, Guitar, Piano), David Mansfield (Mandolin, Guitar, Dobro, Violin, Viola, Steel Guitar, Cello, Hanging Bells, Piano). Additional Musicians: K.O. Thomas (Piano – tracks: A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, B4, B5, B6; Synthesizer on track A1), Mike Utely (Organ – tracks: A3, B5, B6), David Miner (Bass on all tracks except B7), Joe Correro (Drums – tracks: A1, B4), Ringo Starr (Drums – tracks: A2 and B2), Matt Betton (Drums – tracks: A2, B2, B3), Bill Maxwell (Drums – tracks: A3, B1, B5, B6), Geoffrey Hales (Drums on track A4), Osamu Kitajima (Koto on track A4), Cindy Bullens (Harmony – tracks: A1, B2, B4), Scott Glenn (Foreign Correspondent on track B1).