gabrielle - gabrielle

Gabrielle 

Gabrielle 
self-released; 2013

3.4 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Located out of Paris, France, Gabrielle is a singer- songwriter who recently released a three-song EP titled Gabrielle. According to her bio she is a bit of a bohemian living in different countries such as Ireland, Germany, France and the US. Amongst her travels she played with different musicians and was inspired by different genres such as pop, rock, jazz, punk, classical and more. On her EP she doesn't really flex her muscles much as far as her diversity because all the songs are very sparse consisting of reverb-laced guitars and her voice. She has a unique voice that exudes androgyny as well as passion when she belts it out. Her style feels loose and almost improvised at times.

The songs are well written. However I often felt like they were appetizers and wanted to hear more. It left me hungry for more instrumentation, diversity, as well as length. The whole EP is about nine minutes long. 

Gabrielle starts off with “Tell Me It’s Real,” which revolves around a jangly guitar progression. It creates a disjointed carousel of repetitive notes that creates a canvas for Gabrielle to sing over. Her dynamic range changes quite drastically from the verse to the chorus. She repeats the phrase “feel like a king” in a low register before going up a couple of octaves to sing: “Tell it's real, tell you feel, what I've conceived what I've conceived.” On “This Song” she utilizes vocal harmonies to give a dream-like quality to the vocals. She repeats the lyrics with a hushed version a couple of seconds after the original. The song is pretty straightforward in regards to its topic but is sung in such a way it doesn't feel cliché. 

The EP closes with “Rainbow.” The vocals low lay in the mix making it hard to understand what she is saying. As far as the guitars go they sounded disjointed and unsettled. It’s a decent song but it would have benefitted from more instrumentation. 

Gabrielle is off to a decent start but I would love to hear better production, more instrumentation and more focused songwriting. In the meantime this brief EP showcases that there is some talent here. 

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