GABBY YOUNG & OTHER ANIMALS – WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

All flaming red hair, hairpieces, swinging hips and Weimar sass, Gabby Young certainly has a lot going for her. Owing as much to current peers Sarah Blasko and Clare Bowditch as to the grand old dames of the music halls, she sings like a phonograph horn, with a voice that sounds almost instantly antiquated; and when placed among the frenetic scramble of her jungle/swing band and a few modern electric experiments, it’s a breezy cocktail. The tunes are lively, uplifting – particularly the madman’s jump of Ones That Got Away, and the torchy sex appeal of Sour, where you would swear you are listening to the ghost of Anita O’Day. Her excellent band of percussion, guitars, piano, bass, assorted brass etc are called Other Animals, a term which seems to fondly relegate them to the position of subservients under the rule of Gabby Young’s whip; an image that fits well with this heady, swinging circus of an album, led by a genuinely confident and seductive chanteuse. What makes it all worth it is the details – these aren’t just cheap throwbacks, these songs are intricate, intriguing, worth a permanent place on the record shelf.

***1/2