“Angst in My Pants” by Sparks

"Angst in My Pants" is the title track of the Sparks album Atlantic released in March 1982, and the Mael brothers wrote it together: Russell sings, Ron plays keyboards, and the title alone tells you their wit was as sharp and as sly as ever. They cut it at Musicland Studios in Munich with producer Mack, working in association with Giorgio Moroder's operation, for the second and last time.

This was also their second record with a proper rock band behind them, Bob Haag on guitar, Leslie Bohem on bass and David Kendrick on drums, and it shows. James Goodwin added extra synthesizers, but they sit back in the mix and let the guitars and drums shove to the front, so the song comes out as bright, wiry power pop. It was also the last album cover to show off Ron's famous toothbrush moustache.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.