Sparrow and The Workshop – Into The Wild

Sparrow and The Workshop follow their support slots on tours with the likes of Broken Records and British Sea Power with a spell binding debut mini-album of country tinged, lust soaked drama.Having met by chance in Glasgow the American/Scottish/Welsh trio have a refreshingly natural chemistry which is especially apparent when Jill O'Donaldson is joined by the backing vocals of her band mates; the opening 'You've Got It All' a perfect example. Into The Wild indeed; the terrain here is not so much the hills and woods of rural Britain but somewhere sweatier, darker and dustier. There are hints of the Howling Bells early work in the mix of the sensual and the serrated and this is where you might have hoped la Bells would have gone next; back into somewhere rootsier and more primal in tone rather than into half-hearted synth rock.O'Donaldson's has a slightly nasal country twang a la June Cash but manages to combine it's tremendous power with a subtly (take note Florence) which finds it the focal point of the record. A case in point is Jealous of your Heart where she manages to imbue a real sense of yearning, envy and even romance as she sings “why can't you be/as miserable as me?”The title track is a stormy lust-drench drama touching on a relationship that has gone too far in it's obsession, oh and it's got a great chorus but it's the moments when the band push themselves that bit further that mark them out as something special. There is a sense of wilful desolation in lines such as “I am well aware of the films where one girl with no chance and five men with great hair/make a bed and I don't care/if it's like that as long as you say you're not with them” that contrasts beautifully with rhythmic overdriven bass and twangs of acoustic guitar that takes the listener somewhere else entirely.'Crossing Hearts' is the other obvious high water mark, the ever-sultry O'Donaldson once more complimented by Nick Packer's tenor. It's a deceptively sunny arrangement that eventually hints at clouds on the musical horizon as the pair tread another confessional narrative ; “it's only lust/but like the summer drought the rain will wash it out”.It's one of those songs that you feel like you've heard before because you wish you had and the chemistry is all too abundant when lines ”our eyes are fixed upon each other but it hurts” are delivered such such natural conviction.Throughout Into the Wild Sparrow and The Workshop manage to evoke hundreds of bands and songs without sounding like anyone but themselves, this may be a cliché but that's because it's such a difficult thing to do. The band's name is all too easy to read as Jill O'Donaldson as the naturally musical bird while the band craft workman like arrangements over which she can wail but this implication of functionality would be doing them a disservice. The likes of A Horses Grin, with it's mix of inventive percussion and old fashioned tales of forbidden passion make it clear that this is a band firing very much firing from all corners.Buy the album on Amazon | [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/into-wild/id338332078?uo=4" title="Sparrow_and_The_Workshop-Into_the_Wild_(Album)" text="iTunes"]