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.