POP / FOLK
Gabby Young is an intriguing curiosity. Flamboyantly dressed, classically trained, and once the youngest member of the National Youth Choir, she has a distinctive, at times operatic voice, and a style that's increasingly hard to pin down. She has played at Womad, where she did well with her Balkan-influenced, brass-backed circus swing, but is still expanding her range, as shown by this thoughtful set, in which she constantly changes direction. The global influences now include French chanson – with the unworldly-sounding Sur la Lune – and Caribbean styles, with steel drums joining the brass on the exuberant Back Where We Started, and echoes of European gypsy brass on the stomping and witty I've Improved and the cheerful and then angry The Devil Has Moved On. Mixed in with all this are slower ballads; best is the exquisite and personal Fear of Flying.
