Album: Sparrow and the Workshop – Into the Wild

Sparrow-workshop-into-the-wild

Sparrow and The Workshop present Into The Wild, their debut album, a delicate, intricate and honest gift to the senses. Mixing pop, rock and folk as well as their different backgrounds (Scottish, Welsh and American) and views on music, their sound has soul and gravity. It is not only through Jill O’Sullivan’s ever changing and multi-registered vocals, adapting and fitting to each unique song like a glove, but also through Nick Packer and Gregor Donaldson’s ever-expanding experimentation with the genres. They can be electric, harsh, sweet, angelical and bitter within one track.

Songs flow within unpredictability and controlled frustration and bliss. Metallic drumbeats and piercing plucking of guitars blend with O’Sullivan’s tremulous Celtic phrases.  “Into the Wild” and “Horse’s Grin” are two masterpieces that dominate an ever so excellent album as a whole, short in number of tracks (seven only), though make up for a wonderfully formed album, which offers sparkling quality over quantity.

Words: Liane Escorza