102: Sparks - Music That You Can Dance To (1986) - Modesty Plays

With “Modesty Plays,” Sparks do something quite unusual — they revisit and re-record a song that originally appeared as a standalone single a few years earlier, now reshaped to fit the sonic world of Music That You Can Dance To.

Right away, the key question becomes: why bring this one back?

We talk about how this version feels deliberately “updated” — not radically reinvented, but dressed in the album’s mid-80s electronic aesthetic. The production is busier, more insistent, with those constant synth stabs giving it a slightly more hectic, almost mechanical feel compared to the earlier version.

At the same time, the core of the song is still intact. The melody, the structure, and that slightly tongue-in-cheek, almost TV-theme-like energy remain. If anything, it reinforces the idea that this track always had something cinematic about it — like an opening sequence to a stylish European series.

There’s also an interesting detail around the title and lyric: originally “Modesty Blaise,” referencing the famous character, but here shifted to “Modesty Plays.” The re-recording doesn’t fully hide the original reference, which adds a slightly odd, almost accidental layer to the whole thing.

In the context of the album, though, it works surprisingly well. It doesn’t feel out of place — if anything, it helps glue the record together sonically. But it does raise a broader point: on an already short album, Sparks include both a cover (“Fingertips”) and a re-recording, leaving fewer entirely new compositions.

Still, even if it might not surpass the original, it remains a strong track — and part of what makes this album consistently interesting is that every song, including this one, brings something distinctive to the table.