The Yearning

Review by Marcy Donelson

Splitting the difference between their first two LPs, Take Me All Over the World embraces the Brill Building pop of both early girl groups and more melancholy, Bacharach-type drama. That's the wheelhouse of the Yearning, the project of songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer Joe Moore with singer Maddie Dobie. Here, Dobie continues to deliver wistful melodies with the earnestness and longing of a lovestruck teen (she actually was a teenager on all prior material). The delicate "How Do You Make Somebody Fall in Love?" opens the record with acoustic guitar, woodwinds, strings, and cross-stick snare under a vocal line that strolls and occasionally twirls its skirt through flower patches in the early morning dew. It does so while considering metaphors like: "How d'you build a palace on the sun, my dear?/How d'you send an astronaut to Mars?" Later, the elegant bossa nova "Airplane (Fly Me to Mexico)" is a centerpiece that's not only the collection's longest track at four-and-a-half minutes but perhaps its most expansive one, with ornamental windchimes, backing harmonies, and crescendoing cymbal rolls, as well as a swing passage that leads into a dreamy saxophone solo. Moore joins Dobiefor the duet waltz "Learn to Love," which continues to wonder how two individuals can find mutual affection. A set of six songs dubbed a mini-LP, Take Me All Over the World goes by quickly, but immaculate arrangements on songs that unfold with patience and craftsmanship make it a fine entry point for newcomers, recommended for fans of its era of inspiration, and essential for fans.