The Mary Column is the indie-pop recording project of guitarist Jack Mellin (Spinning Coin, L, Smack Wizards). Very Sparrow reflects on five turbulent years of Mellin’s life. In 2020, a tour with Spinning Coin was shelved. Mellin then endured the profound loss of his father, who encouraged his artistic life.
The ten tracks on Very Sparrow are straight from the heart: unadorned, earnest guitar rock made from the madness of loss and the power of love.
The album weaves together Mellin’s skilful guitar and searching voice with longstanding associate Chris White’s spirited drums and features the silvery harmonies of bandmates Rachel Taylor (Spinning Coin) and Simone Wilson (Simone Antigone). Produced by Mellin himself, Very Sparrow draws on his close community of dreamers to create a shimmering world that attests to both Mellin and his city of Glasgow’s position in the history of indie pop.
Very Sparrow was recorded with minimal additional tracking, and its economy underlines the urgent needs of the music. Faced with massive changes in their lives, Mellin and White set time aside to draw out the ideas of Very Sparrow, with Taylor and Wilson drafted in to lift the material to heaven.
Themes of urban alienation, the need for connection, and pavement-based observations on life’s passing pervade the album with simple, aching artfulness. Raw recognition of pain and joy combines in the most natural form of the pop song.
Pop is the means to this end—from the first rolling fill of “It Takes Time” to the pastoral campfire organ of “Wild Light,” the wandering grooves of “Swimming” and “Hamadryad,” heartbreaking grunge in “Love Can Make You Cry,” the fizzing, singalong calls of “Dig,” Sonic Youth sensibilities in “FUA,” and the bouncing squall of “Dirty Winnings.”
Very Sparrow shines in the same vein as Alex Chilton’s Big Star via Teenage Fanclub and The Pastels, with rich glints of Evan Dando’s Lemonheads and Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers. Mellin lets loose his guitar and voice at the expense of discomfort for the sake of expression.
1. It Takes Time
2. Wild Light
3. Swimming
4. World's Apart
5. Love Can Make You Cry
6. Dig
7. Hamadryad
8. FUA
9. Dirty Winnings
10. Temporary
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