18. Sparks - "The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte"

For 57 years Sparks have been the most important band you have never heard of. They have released an astonishing 25 albums and they have silently and with little fanfare shaped the entire history of modern music. Like shadowy Svengalis, they have skilfully manipulated the flow of pop and are constantly foreshadowed where it’s heading next.

“The Girl is Crying in her Latte” is a career retrospective populated entirely by new compositions. They would never do anything as conventional as regurgitate past glories so they have produced an album that returns to previous styles but with completely new songs. Primary songwriter Ron Mellor long ago realised that pop is at its best when it is simplistic and repetitive. Therefore, all the way through this album he finds a refrain and a theme and lets it loop over and over.

There is a playful maturity to the album. It is daft but it is also intellectually curious in its daftness. Each song feels distinctly unique but also never outstays its welcome. Brilliantly brash and quintessentially obtuse this is a pop album that reminds us that pop never needs to be banal.