ALL credit to The Sparks who have thrown the rulebook away in penning this extraordinary album.

The opening track, Dick Around, is like an entire rock opera in a little under seven minutes and the madcap Mael brothers then go and repeat the feat with another absurd seven minutes of hallelujahs and organ music in As I Sit To Play The Organ At Notre Dame Cathedral, the final effort on the album.

Other tracks fail to reach the intensity of these two pieces, the pair acting as two glorious orchestral bookends holding the anarchic duo's witty, if somewhat tiresome, collection in place.

The track Perfume has been earmarked as the first single but it would be difficult to find anything else on Hello Young Lovers that is remotely commercial.

The Sparks have been producing music for about 30 years but this album is as fresh as when they burst on to the scene with their punk-pop mix.

Take a listen, I can guarantee you will have heard nothing like it before.

DL