Singer-songwriter Zoé Basha delivers a jaw-dropping debut into indie folk with "Gamble," her stunning debut album on all streaming platforms. The sound is soulfully authentic and fearlessly genre-blending. "Gamble" is a story through the nomadic soul of an artist who has lived her stories before singing them.
Brought up amongst cultures and with several years of travel under her belt, thumbed rides and freight train boxcars much included, Zoé Basha’s life story reads like a modern folk tale, which she brings to life so vividly across 11 movingly honest tracks. Self-produced and mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Ben Rawlins, Gamble is a densely lush and yet raw tapestry of folk, jazz, blues, Americana, and Irish traditional influences, needle-threaded with a lyrical thread of love, loss, endurance, and the expectations of society.
From an intimate conviction to timeless grace, Basha’s voice hearkens back to the smoky timbres of Billie Holiday, yet bears the lyric weight of Joni Mitchell and Edith Piaf. Her sound has a vintage warmth, but don’t confuse that with nostalgia. Every song pulses with the urgency of the here and now and the truth of personal experience, particularly on standout tracks like “Worried,” where heartbreak suspends in the hush, and “One Morning in May,” a masterclass in minimalist storytelling.
The difference with "Gamble" is that emotional candor is unwavering. It’s a diary of transformation from wandering down roads less traveled to taking center stage with conviction. Whether scrutinising the tender dance of intimacy or reflecting the norms of a society, Zoé renders each lyric with an honesty that haunts into the offing past the last note.
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