Sparrow 68 – Singin’ On The Streets, Sounds Of Oi!

Smith & Miller Records

 

Straight from the gritty backstreets of Mexico City’s ‘colonia’ Peralvillo comes Sparrow 68, an outfit that has been going at it for years already, but – mainly due to a lack of releases – still feels new until this very day. All this is about to change though with Smith & Miller Records releasing Sparrow 68’s album “Singin’ On The Streets, Sounds Of Oi!” for the first time ever, on both CD and LP!

 

And quite frankly, it was about damn time! Originally released through the band’s Bandcamp page early 2019(!), it’s nice to finally have a physical copy of this release in hands. Not only because Sparrow 68 deserves it, but also because “Singin’ On The Streets, Sounds Of Oi!” is a fun and fresh, rather careless record that listens away easily and is highly infectious in the process of doing so!

 

Contrary to the band’s early days, most of the tracks nowadays are in English. Of course this will increase the sing-along potential on a worldwide scale, but personally I would have balanced it out a bit different. Not that I dislike the English tracks – they’re pretty damn contagious to begin with – but the two Spanish tracks, “Perdiendo El Tiempo” (one of the first songs the band has ever written) and the Eddie And The Hot Rods’ cover “Has Lo Que Quieras Hacer” (which is also featured in an English version on this release) sound just a bit more powerful and original in my book, though that could also be just me of course.

 

Nonetheless this is a great release that definitely deserves your attention with props to Smith & Miller Records for doing so. Not only did they release “Singin’ On The Streets, Sounds Of Oi!” ‘after-all’, they also went big with its release on 180 gram vinyl on a variation of colors and including both a CD version (in a carton sleeve) and download code while they’re at it! Great!