[GER] Toy ist das vierte Album von A GIANT DOG und die zweite Veröffentlichung über Merge Records. Die Band tourte ein Jahr lang bevor es ins Studio ging und das hat sich musikalisch bemerkbar gemacht: das Quintett spielt tighter als zuvor, A GIANT DOG erreichen mit TOY einen neuen Höhepunkt. Die beiden Gitarristen Andrew Cashen und Andy Bauer spielen harmonisch im Gleichschritt zu den Rhythmen von Graham Low am Bass und Daniel Blanchard am Schlagzeug. Sängerin Sabrina Ellis beeindruckt erneut. Bei dem Song ,Roller Coaster" teilt die Sängerin sich das Mikrofon mit Britt Daniel von SPOON. ,Toy" wurde mit dem Grammy Gewinner Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn, Cat Power, The White Stripes, Reigning Sound) aufgenommen, produziert wurde es vom Sänger / Songwriter / Gitarrist Andrew Cashen. "Andrew as producer makes a lot of sense, he composes the songs and knows better than anyone what they should sound like in the end. With him at the helm, we've arrived at a raw, truthful, risky, and rangey album.", so Frontfrau Sabrina Ellis. "TOY" bietet eine klangliche Vielfalt, die durch unterschiedlichste Einflüsse wie TINARIWEN und THIN LIZZY entstanden ist. 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 Bauer's 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. The song "Roller Coaster" includes guest vocals by SPOON's Britt Daniel. 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, we've arrived at a raw, truthful, risky, and rangey album." Toy is also sonically huge, pulling from a range of influences as diverse as Tinariwen and Thin Lizzy.