Album, Single and EP Reviews


 

 

  Devil Song b/w Cold Hearted Twist by Sparrow and the Workshop


Devil Song b/w Cold Hearted Twist cover art

Artist: Sparrow and the Workshop
Title: Devil Song b/w Cold Hearted Twist
Catalogue Number: Distiller Records DTIL011
Review Format: 45
Release Year: 2009



Sparrow and the Workshop are a three piece band from Glasgow. Nothing unusual in that nor that they show influences from folk music from that classic period at the end of the sixties and the start of the seventies.

As you might therefore expect these songs head towards the eclectic in a kind of Fleet Foxes way but, ortunately, the results are not anodyne. There's no shortage of reverb for a start on "Devil Song" with the end result that the song sounds like the theme tune to a spaghetti western soundtrack written by the DiAngelo brothers. Cascading torrents of guitar drive things along and then send the song spiralling off into the distance. It certainly doesn't lack drama, that's for sure.

The trusty companion on the flipside goes by the name of "The Cold Hearted Twist". I kept thinking that this would be what a Phil Spector demo would sound like. There's a bit of "Be My Baby" in the intro, chopped vocals like the Blossoms without the echo or the Paris Sisters without the harmony. The female vocals are pure early rock 'n' roll whilst the words echo Roy Orbison. It might sound like confusion but, nonetheless it's got something and that's a fact.

 


www.myspace.com/sparrowandtheworkshop
Reviewer:
Review Date: August 29 2009