THE YEARNING and their song “Do You Remembercategoría” on the japanese Tanzaku “Blue Tention”, published by Miobell Records

This is an exquisite release for fans of collectables, admirers of the physical format, and hard-core collectors.

 In Japan there is an 8cm CD format with a really special and unique packaging, loved by collectors, called Tanzaku. This year is the 35th anniversary of the first release of this special format, and in Japan they have celebrated this event with a diverse series of releases. The record label Miobell released “Blue Tention” a Tanzaku that includes songs from THE STYLE COUNCIL and SWINGING POPSICLE among others, and it also includes a song from Elefant, the marvelous “Do You Remembercategoría” by THE YEARNING. This is a very special limited edition, since Tanzaku traditionally don’t include any kind of insert or print with lyrics, but the Miobell edition includes a fold-out with pictures, lyrics and information. This is an exquisite release for fans of collectables, admirers of the physical format, and hard-core collectors [ Read more ]

TRACKLIST: 01 Never Gonna Let You Go  02 Don’t Take Me To Heart  03 Only When I’m Dancing  04 Love Has Taken Hold Of My Heart 05 Lend Me Your Love  06 Come To Me  07 Take A Little Look  08 Song Or A Dance  09 Keep Me In Mind  10 Yearning For You

Joe Moore is full of surprises. We get the feeling that every new release his name is on, whether they are his own projects (THE YEARNING of course, but also THE PERFECT KISS and JULIE ET JOE) or other people’s (Lia Pamina, Cristina Quesada and Maddie Mae), gives us incredible results. Lounge music, soul, girl groups, chamber pop, French pop from the 60s… Diverse styles pass through his hands like an unstoppable song-making machine, from any era, and any place. That is why this new release is creating so much speculation among his followers – will it be a new and improved version of his last workcategoría Will there be another leap to a new time and placecategoría What will the journey be this timecategoría

As the title, “Only When I’m Dancing”, and the advance singles that have already been released hint, “Only When I’m Dancing”, this new album from THE YEARNING, transports us to the golden age of disco music, when the dance floor was full of excitement, melancholy, elegance and majestic arrangements (something that Moore notably excels at). When hips moved to the beat of groove and syncopation. This time, t [ Read more ]

TRACKLIST: 01 Come To Me  02 Tokyo In Spring

A few weeks ago we gave you an advance of the new THE YEARNING album, a release with multiple new things: the disco music from the end of the 70s as a leitmotiv, the appearance of Luci Ashbourne substituting Maddie Dobie on vocals, and an advance starring “Only When I’m Dancing”, the song that will be the album’s title track. This single also came with a video directed by Santi Capuz (THE LAST DETAIL, LA BIEN QUERIDA, Soleá Morente, NEVVER, AIKO EL GRUPO…), where we could see a group of girls getting ready to go out for a hedonistic night of dancing and partying. Now the new advance is here, “Come To Me”, and with it, we finish the story that we got started in the last video.

This is a mid-tempo that pays tribute to the Joe Moore’s deep admiration of ABBA, and dresses it up with traces of chanson and light Italian music, and soundtracks from erotic movies from the 70s, where Luci’s silky voice fits like a glove on this song full of melancholy. Because at the end of the story we see precisely that: the sadness before the imminent sunrise, the exhaustion of the final stretch, and the search for real emotion that can transcend the night.

And what’s more, this Digital Single comes with a previously unreleased song, “Tokyo In Spring”. It is another exercise in disco music, with that typical, syncopated piano, dreamlike strings, and a temperature [ Read more ]

TRACKLIST: 01 Only When I’m Dancing  02 Moonlight Fantasy

Joe Moore has become a special member of the Elefant family, all on his own merit. His prolific spirit has led him to participate in many of the label’s offerings, both his own projects (THE YEARNING and THE PERFECT KISS) as well as others’ (Lia Pamina, Cristina Quesada and Maddie Mae). But even more than that, in all his facets, he has shown us his passion for music and the hours and hours of music we have shared together, be it lounge, chamber pop, the girl-group sixties sound, electro-pop, and disco music. That is why the arrival of these new songs, and the expectations surrounding the British musician’s choice of path this time, are huge.

And it seems like disco music is the winner this time. ABBA, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Barry White and all the imagery that surrounded Studio 54 between the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties. This change of style and another series of artistic circumstances have led to the vocal work, which up to now has been the responsibility of Maddie Dobie (with a solo career in its beginning stages and a first Digital Single already released), being handed over to Luci Ashbourne. Her mature, velvety voice fits like a glove on these sensual, exciting songs, many of which are aimed directly at the dance floor. That is why this new single is called “Only When I’m Dancing” (the song which is also the title track for the up [ Read more ]

THE YEARNING was not a group that Joe Moore thought up to have an incarnation on stage; you can count on the fingers of one hand the group’s live appearances in its 6 year career. But the success all their albums have had in Japan has made it so that, at least temporarily, the group has prepared a live show and is heading out on the Japanese road. Over five intense days, from April 4 to 9, Joe Moore and company will take their dreamy and mature chamber pop to record stores, cafes and bars, where they will also present a special, limited-edition, unique vinyl compilation album called “Do You Remembercategoría”, which is being released especially for this tour by the Japanese label DISKUNION. It includes 16 of the best songs released over the course of their career. During the tour, fans in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo will be able to enjoy the songs included on the vinyl, since the set-list the group plans to play will be based on that collection. We are so excited to see all the fans who will flood in to the shows and, above all, to see how such a delicious and exquisite proposal takes shape. More info at: https://elefant.com/grupos/the-yearning/conciertos Before they leave, THE YEARNING will also be playing in the Wales Goes Pop festival in Cardiff, along with bands like AXOLOTES MEXICANOS, KERO KERO BONITO, THE SCHOOL and SHONEN KNIFE. Let’s see if we are lucky and we make the most of the path our Japanese friends are opening up to see them again on [ Read more ]

The untiring Joe Moore is back with a new Mini-LP from THE YEARNING, in his endless search for beauty in music. In fact, some of the songs on this Mini-LP were conceived as continuations of the songs included on the last album, “Evening Souvenirs”, after the adventures with Lia Pamina and THE PERFECT KISS.

Accompanied again by Maddie Dobie and Mark Kiff,Joe Moore continues addressing his usual inclinations: the chanson, chamber pop, bossa, and above all, the perfect song. And once again, he is handling all the production work, the recording, and the songwriting, and is playing almost all the instruments. “How Do You Make Somebody Fall In Lovecategoría” insists precisely on everything that “Evening Souvenirs” aimed toward: the fragile delicateness of Claudine Longet and Françoise Hardy, elevated by baroque arrangements and exquisite nuances. “Do You Remembercategoría” is pure energy, festive and agile samba with orchestration that evokes musicals (that bridge that reminds us so much of “La La Land”) with a nostalgic look at how much music has changed. Side A closes with “Everything Is You” – elegance with echoes of Astrud Gilberto and Elis Regina, and that sax solo that Stan Getz would have been happy to have written. A beautiful bossa piece dedicated to his family.

 And the Brazilian breezes that are the clear stars of this album also open Side B, with “Airplane (Fly Me To M [ Read more ]

THE YEARNING are starting the year off with really good news – this coming January 19th is the release of their new album “Take Me All Over The World”, and at the beginning of April they’ll be travelling to Japan for their first tour in the land of the rising sun. This is a highly anticipated visit, in one of the countries that most admires the work of the versatile, multitalented British composer, arranger and producer, Joe Moore. But the news we are bringing you today is about Álex de la Iglesia’s new movie, “Perfectos Desconocidos”, which opened at the beginning of this past December. It became one of 2017’s biggest box-office earners for Spanish theaters, and in 2018 it is still going strong. More than two million people have already seen this hilarious comedy that closes with THE YEARNINGS’ “You Stopped The World” – a sweet, placid song, that sounds like the arrival of first love, a song that turns sadness into something beautiful, a perfect mix of Françoise Hardy, Claudine Longet and Astrud Gilberto. The melody stays with you when it feels like the rest of the world has turned its back. A nighttime gift by moonlight. “You Stopped The World” is included on their album “Evening Souvenirs”, released in October 2016. [ Read more ]

Soon, we will be able to enjoy the new release in Mini-LP format, “Take Me All Over The World”, by Joe Moore and his most well-known project, THE YEARNING. As an advance, we are bringing you one of the six songs that will be included on that 10”, numbered, limited-edition vinyl – the Digital Single “Do You Remembercategoría”.

The song is flooded with samba, with delicate arrangements, with Maddie Dobie’s delicious and essential voice, with echoes of Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, drops of the “La La Land” soundtrack, the French chanson, and melancholy and emotion. This is all perfectly reflected in the video that Iain Mutch (WalkerAndWilliam) filmed for the occasion, with the experienced and remembered moments of a relationship that fades and reappears.

Get ready for a journey around the world with this music-loving demonstration of good taste, which will arrive in its entirety as soon as we begin the new year, 2018. 

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To say that Joe Moore is prolific is to say not nearly enough. To his ever-growing collection of releases under the name THE YEARNING, you have to add the fantastic Lia Pamina album he produced and composed, as well as several new and very different projects that will come out this 2017, like THE PERFECT KISS’s first album, full of tasty electro-pop songs, to be released this March.

His productions are becoming more and more well-known all over the world, from one side of the planet to the other, from the US to Japan. Their signature effusive, romantic, and elegant sixties-style pop is already a well-known trademark! That’s why the release of “From Dawn Till Dusk (2011-2014)” is big news. Big for all the newcomers, because they can get their hands on the completely sold out first singles, EPs and Mini-LPs; and big for the more experienced fans, because they can get access to hard-to-find tracks from compilations and B-sides, and even some previously unreleased songs; and because it’s a way to enjoy this huge collections of songs as a whole, available together for the first time on CD Digipak.

“From Dawn Till Dusk (2011-2014)” includes songs from their first two Mini-LPs, “Jukebox Romance” and “Still In Love”, the B-sides from the singles “Baby Be Mine” and “If I Can't Have You”, the song they shared with THE SCHOOL on the split-single for Kingfisher Bluez, the song that was re [ Read more ]

Joe Moore’s project is one of those groups that means so much to Elefant Records. First, because of their songs and lyrics, and everything they want to transmit with them. But also because of what the music means to him, the way he lives and interprets it: a special project, made and managed in his own studio, that with a few other things makes up a personal universe that is exciting, independent, separate from any other kind of precepts from the music industry, his very own. That’s why we are so happy to be able to get our hands on an album like “Evening Souvenirs”, THE YEARNING’s second album.

This new material is a marvelous surprise. The delicious arrangements, that romantic halo, and Maddie Dobie’s fascinating voice are still there on almost the entire album. But while “Dreamboats & Lemonade” looks to sixties pop from the most cheerful girl-group perspective, “Evening Souvenirs” is a slow, deliberate, nocturnal (as the name itself indicates) album, with echoes of lounge music and “chanson”, of bossa and chamber pop, with touches of Sarah and Él Records’ melancholy, Burt Bacharach soundtracks. Playing with a considerable number of instruments, and the special participation of the Cotswold Voices choir on many of the songs, we find ourselves with one of those albums that needs to be listened to in semi-darkness, where the notes are bursting to the surface, giving you goose bumps [ Read more ]

The time is getting close for the release of THE YEARNING’s anticipated new album, “Evening Souvenirs”, and now we have this advance digital single and video-clip to enjoy as an appetizer. The single and video perfectly show off the deep romanticism and delicate sensibilities that THE YEARNING’s new work contains. The album is full of majestic arrangements, chamber pop, and influences from the most sophisticated and melancholic French music. “When I Lost You” has echoes of Burt Bacharach and his “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, and the fragile sadness of Dusty Springfield. Chris Croft, the director of the video-clip, takes control of the camera again and creates a document with pastoral tones, with those Victorian gardens and that screen division, reminding us of the stylizations of French Nouvelle Vague. We are totally convinced that “Evening Souvenirs” is going to be one of the albums of the year, and this song is solid proof.

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After their previous singles and mini-lp’s, we have been anxiously awaiting the full-length debut from Joe Moore and the rest of THE YEARNING. Their sweet melodies, dreamy arrangements, and passion for the sounds of the fifties, had us so excited, with our hands glued to the needle on the record player, waiting for the right moment to submerge ourselves in the grooves of their first full-length. That moment has finally arrived.

“Dreamboats & Lemonade” plays again with the two sides of love (as their two previous 10”’s did) – the sweeter side and the more bitter side, each represented by the concepts that give the album it’s name and preside over their respective sides of the record. And what better feeling to represent these two facets than the nostalgic melancholy that cradles the small resentments but sugar-coats painful memories. This feeling is the star of this delicious album, which moves between Phil Spector’s wall and Burt Bacharach’s elegance, and doesn’t hide its love for a very specific era and style of understanding pop, decorated with reverb that fades out like Christmas lights.

The album – accompanied by numerous collaborators who make up the THE YEARNING ORCHESTRA, and who share space with wind instruments, strings, electric guitars, and the already known voices of Maddie Dobie (lead vocals) and Alicia Rendle-Woodhouse (backing vocals) – is another emotional journey full of curiou [ Read more ]

Axolotes Mexicanos (Spain)   

This Asturian trio, signed to the legendary Elefant Records, career from crazy punk to the most playful, DIY electro-pop with energy, muscle, strength and ferocity.  Olaya, Stephen and Juan evoke the wildest and most fun moments of the indie explosion that happened in the early 80s in Spain. The band’s first  release, “Infectados”, is Helen Love  and Pegamoides pogo-dancing in celebration of one of the group’s biggest passions – zombies!    

Linda Guilala (Spain)

A fter the split of Juniper Moon at the end of 2005, Iván (former drummer and founder of the band) and Eva (keyboards) started their new adventure under the name of Linda Guilala. Their latest release, ‘Xeristar’ (Elefant Records) contains six intense, electrifying compositions that go from furious to narcotic, somewhere between Los Planetas, Ride, Clinic, My Bloody Valentine and Spiritualized at their spaciest and most ultrasonic.            

The Yearning  

Founded by songwriter/producer Joe Moore and signed to the legendary Elefant Records, the band’s songs ache of a bygone innocence and simplicity, as influenced by Phil Spector’s girl groups, Brian Wilson’s ‘Pet Sounds’ and Irving Berlin’s classic songwriting. Their debut [ Read more ]

THE YEARNING’s debut full-length will be here really soon, and to whet our appetites, Joe Moore and his gang are giving us a song as an advance digital single – “If I Can’t Have You”. The song is a summary of many of the constants that have caught our attention up to now: delicious melodies with fifties tendencies, prodigious productions along the lines of the masters like Phil Spector,Jack Nietzsche andBurt Bacharach, and lyrics obsessed with the two sides of sentimental relationships. And they do it again, with that opening drum line that’s so characteristic, and those castanets adorned with heavenly choruses, evoking some of the best girl groups in history, like THE RONETTES and THE VELVELETTES. An absolute delicacy.

As a gift with this release, a version of THE NOLANS’ “Gotta Pull Myself Together”, exclusive for this digital single, in which Maddie Dobie’s voice once again dazzles us in that highly addictive chorus, while the guitar arrangement takes us to the limit. It’s a teaser that heightens, if it is even possible, our impatience to get our hands on this first album that has us so excited, and that we’ve been dreaming about so much.

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