Album: Sparks, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, (Lil Beethoven Records)

The 22nd album by Sparks – never ones to do things the easy way – is a biopic in opera form of a legendary Swedish art-house director, with a cast of actor-singers augmenting Russell Mael’s vocals, and a complete orchestra backing Ron’s luxurious pianos. It’s a genre and format to which the brothers, whose work is so often described as “operatic”, are immaculately suited.

You won’t be pulling many extracts for your personal best-of CD-R, but listened to as a whole it’s an engrossing and enriching piece.