The Best of Cock Sparrer [Recall]

RELEASE
November 16, 2004
LABEL
Recall (UK)
GENRES
Pop/Rock, Punk, Oi!, British Punk, Punk/New Wave

Album Review

Total Recall does it again, compiling a true "best of the best" for an act that is marginal outside the punk community. Cock Sparrer were the righteous side of Oi!, the politically and socially progressive sound of working-class London along with the much shorter-lived Newtown Neurotics. These two discs pack a walloping 30 cuts that are as essential a bit of Cock Sparrer-bilia as one is likely to find. There are tracks from singles, EPs, one-off split discs, LP cuts, and (of course) CD and compilation entries as well. There are original versions of "Runnin' Riot," "Chip on My Shoulder," "We Love You," and "Sister Suzie," along with "Argy Bagy," "Riot Squad," "Run for Cover," "I Need a Witness," "Watch Your Back," and "Trouble on the Terraces" -- a neat answer back to the Cockney Rejects' "War on the Terraces." There is also an alternate version of "Chip on My Shoulder" that opens the second disc. This is a packed lot, this one.
Thom Jurek, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. Runnin' Riot [Original Version]
  2. Chip on My Shoulder [Original Version]
  3. We Love You [Original Version]
  4. Sister Suzie [Original Version]
  5. England Belongs to Me
  6. Argy Bagy
  7. Working
  8. I've Got Your Number
  9. Watch Your Back
  10. Riot Squad
  11. Where Are They Now?
  12. The Sun Says
  13. Run with the Blind
  14. Price Too High to Pay?
  15. Is Anybody There?
  16. Closedown
  17. Think Again
  18. Out on an Island
  19. Chip on My Shoulder [Alternative Version][Alternate Take]
  20. Again and Again
  21. Taken for a Ride
  22. Trouble on the Terraces
  23. Watcha Gonna Do About It
  24. I Need a Witness
  25. Platinum Blond
  26. What's It Like to Be Old?
  27. Teenage Heart
  28. Run for Cover
  29. Running Riot [Live]
  30. Chip on My Shoulder [Live]