Sparks bring Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins to a close with “Senseless Violins,” a tiny theatrical coda that completes the album title and delivers one final elaborate pun.

We discuss how this miniature ghost story mirrors the opening track, the way its ominous strings play on “senseless violence,” and whether it is really a song at all or simply a musical punchline. We also consider how its rejection of the “usual drums and bass” unexpectedly points ahead to the orchestral world of Lil’ Beethoven.

The conversation then expands into a full album retrospective, with our favourite tracks, the stronger first half, and the importance of the record as Sparks’ major European comeback. We also explore the extensive bonus material, including “She’s an Anchorman,” unreleased demos, the Christy Haydon collaboration “Katharine Hepburn,” and a gloriously strange industrial reinvention of “Boris the Spider.”