by 2002, sparks had released eighteen albums, the last several of them in the new wave/synthpop vein. while this had been successful, breaking them in the us with 1983's "cool places" and in germany with "when do i get to sing 'my way'?" in 1995, it had not secured them much critical acclaim or a consistent audience. 1997's "plagiarism", which consisted entirely of new recordings of earlier material, had been intended to introduce the group's back catalog to their new german audience, while building on the success with high-profile collaborations for the uk and us audience. it had only been partially successful.