This site loved Spinning Coin. I may not have been aware of the band's demise had I not received two separate pitches on the same day for two spin-off projects. One of those was for Jack Mellin's new band, The Mary Column. I'm happy to say that Very Sparrow, out this week on Errol's Hot Wax, has lots in its grooves that sounds like Jack's old band, and even more that points in interesting new directions.
The guitar explorations of "Swimming" are complicated, where opener "It Takes Time" is remarkably catchy and straightforward. Throughout the record there's this push-and-pull happening between Jack's choices as a musician and as a singer. "World's Apart", a real gem, mixes Marr-y strums with Mellin's gently urgent vocals. The track opens up like early Aztec Camera, and the drama of the buildup finds resolution in melodic swells and expressive guitar runs and flourishes. It's a quietly glorious number, and one of many such things here.
The Mary Column is primarily Jack Mellin but special praise also goes to Rachel Taylor (also ex-Spinning Coin) and Simone Wilson whose backing vocals lend "Love Can Make You Cry" a lightness which juxtaposes perfectly with Mellin's emotional delivery. The cut reveals debts to the kind of jangle pop which made Creation Records a label of note, and stuff from the peak years of The Verlaines. Another nod is sent in the direction of Chris White whose drumming here on this one, and on the decidedly VU-like closer "Temporary", adds necessary punctuation to Mellin's emotive indie.
Very Sparrow is one of the best records I've heard so far in 2025. It really came as a pleasant surprise, especially since I was somehow, inexplicably unaware of the break-up of Spinning Coin. There's so much here that reveals a new path for Jack Mellin, and so much more that sounds a bit like Spinning Coin that it's hard not to just rave about this. It's helpful for some to read reviews that are more dispassionate, but around here, I try to feature records I'm at least a little enthusiastic about. And Very Sparrow is one I'm very enthusiastic about. It's just a superb piece of work, and one which, in its cathartic and emotional peaks and valleys, is still an album which rewards multiple plays. Play this like you did the indie of your youth, until the rough-edged melodic hooks here start to seep into your soul a bit.
Very Sparrow by The Mary Column is out this week via Errol's Hot Wax.