text: The band's first album of the 2020s, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip, was released in digital form in May 2020, with the physical release pushed back to July  due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was preceded by singles "Self-Effacing", and "I'm Toast" in February and March, respectively. Like its predecessor, Hippopotamus, it entered the UK Albums Chart at number 7 and garnered universal critical acclaim. Coinciding with the physical release of the album, an official music video for the song "The Existential Threat" premiered on YouTube, the animation created by English freelance animator and composer Cyriak Harris. The band then collaborated with Todd Rundgren on the single "Your Fandango", 50 years after he produced their debut album.
  Sparks were involved in two 2021 film releases, as screenwriters and composers for the musical Annette, directed by Leos Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and in The Sparks Brothers, a documentary about their career directed by Edgar Wright. Annette premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and was in competition for the Palme d'Or. The leading track "So May We Start" was accompanied by a video featuring the band with Driver and Cotillard, and the Annette soundtrack was released on Sony.