133: Sparks - Balls (2000) - Scheherazade

Sparks turn to One Thousand and One Nights for “Scheherazade,” one of the most atmospheric and divisive tracks on Balls.

We discuss its slow-building hip-hop-influenced beat, dramatic strings, understated piano and Tammy Glover’s live drum fills, along with Amelia Cohn’s brief spoken contribution. For some of us, the combination creates one of the album’s most sophisticated and beautiful deep cuts; for others, the production feels too tied to the late 1990s and never quite comes together.

Lyrically, the song retells Scheherazade’s nightly struggle to remain alive by keeping the king entertained with new stories. We also consider a more self-referential interpretation: Sparks as the storyteller, continually inventing something new to hold the attention of their audience and the music industry.

Rarely performed and largely overlooked since the Balls era, “Scheherazade” may also offer an early glimpse of the orchestral direction Sparks would explore more fully on Lil’ Beethoven.