Search - Gabby La La :: Be Careful What You Wish For

Be careful what you wish for and BLAST OFF

My Uncle Stu | Boston | 11/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Countdown and

music, projected by the

ancestors, activated from the same recycled

Tao that floated the

golf ball of nevermind.



Unwrapped and unwound,

ukuleled and sitared,

Tachy-Vivace-Feather-Tickle-Falsetto-Fugues

projected as a single helix of vitality, I

escape set and setting, escape insatiable

creation, yet anchored

by downy injections

of ponytailed polytonalities,



drunken goose flesh flits off Saturn's ornaments

between bowing Buddha's smoked

ghoudas, until

no landing no collision, but silken,

rapelling Rapunzel's pubes

like a pool in a tub, like a tool in a pub,

like the blissful

blind bluster of young

passion's meandering musk. If, if,



if



If this music is real, if I can maintain, then I have been betrayed by everything I've ever called love.



"

Not just a lucky charm

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 02/18/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's actually a bit deceptive to call Gabby La La a pop singer. It usually makes you think of Britney, Ashlee or Hilary.



But Gabby is about as different from those as a golden glea is from a fortune cookie. With her quirky songwriting (chasing down leprechauns? Eating mermaid?), catchy songs, and the most unusual singing voice I've heard in a very long time.



It starts off with a pair of almost painfully catchy songs: "Be Careful What You Wish For" and "Backpack" ("Gotta keep track of me backpack!") with their tales of genies, mermaids and Roman tourism. It's almost impossible not to hear these simple, bouncy little infectious tunes without bouncing in your seat.



Then she twists her own catchy songs around. Rather than staying on the same track, she switches to some songs flavoured with Indian sitar, sparkling accordion pop, bouncy French-folk-flavoured music, and swirling indie balladry. There's even a grittier, darker song about "Pirates," with plenty of stark guitar to keep it grounded. By far, it's the most "ordinary" song on the album.



And Gabby La La also keeps the songwriting... well, not ordinary. I wouldn't go so far as to call it weird, since I've heard much weirder. But it's quirky, and the focuses are usually pretty far from "I love my boyfriend" or "he left me and I'm miserable." Golden fleas that chew fool's gold, genies, aged leprechauns, Hansel and Gretel, Santa's elves, and the "boogie woogie man in a black dress." There's even a song devoted to fortune cookies.



Yes, it sounds terribly twee. And here and there, it is. But Gabby La La gives it a slightly sick twist in places ("I found a mermaid swimming next to me/Then she offered me a single wish/I said I'd like to have you in my dish!"), and sometimes she gets even quirkier ("Boogie woogie man in a black dress/state your name and state your business!").



The topper to all this weirdness is Gabby La La's own voice -- she sounds like a fairy on speed, especially in the faster songs. It may sound weird at first, but it grows on you. She provides about half the instrumentation here -- usually sitar, ukelele and accordion -- while Les Claypool provides the more conventional pop instrumentation like drums and bass.



If you like the idea of a song that says, "Little fortune cookie, I'd like to smash you!", then Gabby La La's quirky, wacky debut is for you. Delightful."

Be Careful What You Wish For...

Johnny Saturn | Connecticut | 06/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gabby La La is like no other musician. It's no wonder why Les Claypool picked her up on his record label Prong Song. Gabby's musical instruments range from a sitar, accordion, toy piano, and ukulele. The album is filled with great music and lyrics all writen by Gabby except 'In Dreams' which was writen by the great Roy and Barbara Orbison. A few tracts are solos with Gabby playing the sitar or ukulele-"In and Out of Dreaming, Little fortune Cookie", but all the other tacts contain Claypool on both bass and percussion. The album can seem a little bizzare for some, but for the many Claypool fans it should be right up their ally. Mixed with humorus lyrics and catchy riffs, you'll be singing these songs in your head all day long. So be careful what you wish for...'cause it might come true."