Interior Design (album)

Interior Design
Studio album by
ReleasedAugust 26, 1988 (1988-08-26)
StudioThe Pentagon Studio (Los Angeles)
GenreSynth-pop
Length44:25
Label
Producer
Sparks chronology
Music That You Can Dance To
(1986)
Interior Design
(1988)
Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins
(1994)
Singles from Interior Design
  1. "So Important"
    Released: July 1988
  2. "Just Got Back from Heaven"
    Released: August 1989
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]

Interior Design is the fifteenth studio album by the American rock band Sparks, released in August 1988 by Fine Art Records.

Release

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Interior Design did little in the way to reverse the commercial fortunes of the group, and did not appear on the album charts in the US or the UK. The singles "So Important" and "Just Got Back from Heaven" did better, both of which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart at No. 8[2] and No. 7[2] respectively. "Just Got Back from Heaven" also appeared on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart at No. 24.[2]

Re-release

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CD versions of the album included a number of bonus tracks including three versions of the LPs final track "Madonna", a remix of "So Important" and the short instrumental "The Big Brass Ring". In 2008, Sparks' own record label Lil' Beethoven Records reissued the album in a digipak sleeve retaining the bonus tracks.

Alternate titles

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For unknown reasons, Interior Design has been re-released multiple times in various European territories as a budget CD. The most common retitled version is Just Got Back from Heaven. However, many other versions have been released often utilising images of the mid-seventies Island-era iteration of the band. Other releases market the album as if it were a greatest hits album.

The alternate titles of Interior Design are as follows: Just Got Back from Heaven (Soundwings, Success, Hallmark Music & Entertainment), The World of the Sparks / Madonna (Trace Trading), So Important (Trend, LaserLight Digital), Gold (Gold), The Magic Collection (ABC Records).

Tour

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Interior Design was the first Sparks album since 1979's Nº 1 in Heaven that wasn't supported by live performances. However, they staged a promotional event called Love-O-Rama at the Tower Records store in Sherman Oaks, California on September 15, 1988.

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Ron Mael and Russell Mael

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."So Important"4:33
2."Just Got Back From Heaven"4:09
3."Lots Of Reasons"3:47
4."You've Got a Hold of My Heart"4:58
5."Love-O-Rama"4:44
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."The Toughest Girl in Town"4:16
7."Let's Make Love"4:45
8."Stop Me if You've Heard this Before"3:41
9."A Walk Down Memory Lane"4:53
10."Madonna"4:39
Total length:44:25
CD bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
11."Madonna" (French Version)4:39
12."Madonna" (German Version)4:39
13."Madonna" (Spanish Version)4:39
14."The Big Brass Ring"2:20
15."So Important" (Extremely Important Remix)7:02

Personnel

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  • Russell Mael – vocals, production
  • Ron Mael – keyboards, production
  • Spencer Sircombe – guitar
  • Pamela Stonebrooke – background vocals
  • John Thomas – keyboards, engineering

References

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  1. ^ AllMusic review
  2. ^ a b c "AllMusic - Billboard Singles - Sparks". Billboard. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
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