Toy

Description

CD & LP packages include lead singer Sabrina Ellis handwritten lyrics + a photo of the band. Roller Coaster include guest vocals by Spoons Britt Daniel. Toy, the fourth LP from A Giant Dog and their second for Merge, shows the Austin quintet at the height of their powers. A solid year of road-dogging and woodshedding has made the band tighter than ever, the charging dynamo of Andrew Cashen and Andy Bauers guitars in lockstep with the primal chug of the rhythm section Graham Low on bass and the recorded debut of Daniel Blanchard on drums. Singer Sabrina Ellis turns in another masterful performance, in equal parts brash, defiant, vulnerable, and raw. Lyrically, Sabrina and Andrew have a gift for making their personal frustrations and fuck-ups, fears, lusts, and addictions feel universal. While they have always given voice to the weirdos and creepsshowing that their peccadilloes and peculiarities are much more deep-seated and widespread they dig even deeper on Toy. I feel Ive revealed more in this album than ever before, Sabrina confesses. Still, the band doesnt sacrifice an ounce of catchiness or charm when tackling issues like aging, agency, and mortality. For proof, just look at Photograph, the sweetest love song about physical longing and enduring devotion to ones lover, even as their body succumbs to the ravages of time. The band recorded Toy with Grammy-winning engineer Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn, Cat Power, The White Stripes, Reigning Sound), and singer/songwriter/guitarist/wildman Cashen produced it. Andrew as producer makes a lot of sense, Sabrina says. He composes the songs and knows better than anyone what they should sound like in the end. With him at the helm, weve arrived at a raw, truthful, risky, and rangey album. Toy is also sonically huge, pulling from a range of influence s as diverse as Tinariwen and Thin Lizzy.