(Jazz/Cabaret/Swing/Indie) Gabby Young & Other Animals - Discography - 2009-2014 (3 CD) MP3, 320 kbps

#777Tracklist:
01. Umm... 04:34
02. Ladies Of The Lake 02:13
03. Horn Interlude 00:16
04. Ones That Got Away 03:17
05. We're All In This Together 05:35
06. Lipsink 03:10
07. Whose House 04:19
08. Sour 05:08
09. Ask You A Question 02:09
10. Horatio Intro… 00:10
11. Maybe 04:47
12. Too Young To Die 06:34
13. Two By Two 04:49
Bonus Tracks:
14. Snakebite 03:31
15. Mole 06:04
16. Down 05:00
17. Button 04:44
Released 02 November 2009.
Special Edition Released 15 November 2010.
Lossless Rip

#777Tracklist:
01. In Your Head 03:10
02. Goldfish Bowl 03:41
03. Walk Away 03:55
04. Male Version Of Me 04:17
05. Open 04:01
06. Clay Heart 02:40
07. Neither The Beginning Nor The End 03:17
08. Horatio 03:58
09. Honey 03:36
10. Segment 03:45
11. The Answer's In The Question 04:51
12. Curtain Call 02:22
13. The Band Called Out For More 04:01
Released 11 June 2012.
Lossless Rip

#777Tracklist:
01. Sur La Lune (...A French Ditty) 04:02
02. Time 03:38
03. Fear Of Flying 03:55
04. I've Improved 03:47
05. Another Ship 05:24
06. Saviour 04:04
07. Smile 03:11
08. The Devil Has Moved In 04:07
09. Back Of The Car 04:16
10. One Foot In Front Of The Other 04:01
11. Back Where We Started 04:56
12. Jessica 03:47
Released 28 March 2014.
Lossless Rip

‘Touring and travelling the world has changed me as a writer: before gigs is often when the kernel of a song comes to me. Also meeting so many different people and experiencing their cultures has changed my outlook on life – especially in Japan, Australia and Germany.’
In 2012, with a list of accolades as long as a pair of stripy tights, Gabby Young And Other Animals, (otherwise known as the “World’s Finest Purveyors of Circus Swing” – Clive Anderson, Loose Ends, R4) released their new highly anticipated album, ‘The Band Called Out For More’, on 11th June in the UK.
Written by Gabby (and her partner Stephen Ellis, who also produces), this 13 track work represents a giant sonic step forward. Its colourful avant-garde sound, with lush orchestration, horns and quiet melodies, exudes the best bits of music hall, burlesque, 1920s flapper music, Nouvelle Vague cinema and torch songs. Indeed, Gabby comes across like Rufus Wainwright’s energetic younger sister – bred perhaps on a diet of Bjork, Imogen Heap, and Joanne Newsom – as she sets out winningly to reinvent her own genre, Circus Swing. ‘My sound’s matured,’ is all she’ll say. ‘I’ll admit that. I’ve honed my craft. I’m very happy and settled where I wasn’t before. ‘
Lead single ‘In Your Head’ (also out June 11) allows fans to connect with the upbeat party tempo of the first album. Its witty animated interactive promo video, in which you can ‘choose’ which animal to be saved from an evil ringmaster, was produced by Gabby’s friend Georgina Hurcombe (Lovelove Films). So is it all a metaphor for music industry? ‘Perhaps,’ sighs Gabby, with a smile.
Where the first album was more uniform in style, ‘The Band…’ cleverly juxtaposes both tempos and themes. ‘Goldfish Bowl’s jauntiness belies its feelings of ‘being trapped’ (‘one look takes me down a peg and breaks me’), whilst the catchy horn-infused ‘Walk Away’, Gabby’s first song written on piano, builds to a celebratory climax: ‘I woke up one morning at 6am,’ she says, ‘and this came out, lyrics and all, in 5 minutes. It was something I really needed to say to my Dad.’
The slower tracks stand out particularly. There’s The Answer’s In The Question’s incessant analysis of a relationship; the contemplative trumpet-tinged ‘Honey,’ Gabby’s personal favourite (another love song, but this time about the insecurities at the beginning); and, most impressively, ‘Male Version Of Me’, a quiet accordion-tinged paean to finding a soulmate, with touches of musical theatre and backing vocals from Gabby’s partner Stephen. ‘It’s about being yourself around someone so much that they start to feel like a part of you.’
But fear not, there are hoedown moments aplenty too: ‘Horatio’ is one such, pure and simple. ‘It was written a while ago for the first album but never made the cut, and now it’s bigger and better. It’s a favourite live, and a lot of fun to perform.’ Closing track ‘The Band Called Out For More’ marries Gabby’s music hall credentials with a barely repressed urge to morph into some crazed Edith Piaf. ‘I am so happy to have this on the album as it’s the opera side of me. It’s about someone who wouldn’t stop dancing – I know a few people with endless energy and I’m insanely jealous of them.’
And it’s worth rhapsodizing over the album’s two masterpieces: the first is ‘Segment’, which opens quietly before building into an almighty strings-charged Arcade Fire-style workout. ‘I wrote it whilst twiddling about with some shapes on the guitar; Stephen Ellis came up with the rest of the tune and the main riff – and turned my ditty into an epic.’
The second is the serpentine ‘Neither Beginning Nor The End’, a spine-tingling mid-tempo classic that opens with the lines: ‘I’m a grandfather clock. I slow down every day…’ It builds to a plea – ‘don’t let me down’ – complete with operatic flourishes, before an abrupt finish leaving the listener needing more. ‘After a period of writer’s block I started writing furiously. Some of my songs have meanings that not even I am clear about – and this is one of them. It has images of religion, things breaking, but I’m pretty sure that when I start playing this live I’ll discover its true meaning.’
Gabby smiles. ‘Indecision is a common thread in my songs and this title fits in rather nicely.’
It’s also an apt – if rather understated – phrase for where this big UK talent is in her career.