''The Original Leap Year'' is the second album by

Emm Gryner Emm Gryner (born 8 June 1975 in Sarnia, Ontario) is a Canadian-Filipino singer, songwriter, recording artist, and author. She has released 20 albums as a solo performer, and has collaborated with artists including David Bowie and Chris Hadfie ...

, released on Gryner's independent

Dead Daisy Records Emm Gryner (born 8 June 1975 in Sarnia, Ontario) is a Canadian-Filipino singer, songwriter, recording artist, and author. She has released 20 albums as a solo performer, and has collaborated with artists including David Bowie and Chris Hadfie ...

. Gryner funded the album with prize money from

Standard Broadcasting Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object t ...

's National Songwriting Competition. The album, which was credited as a thematic song cycle inspired by the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

, attracted significant media attention in Canada, and Gryner was offered a major label deal with

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

. She rerecorded some of the same songs for her 1998 major label debut ''

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'', although that album also included several newer songs.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote: "Simple in its approach and running the gamut from raw power to quiet simplicity, ''The Original Leap Year'' proves its beauty without the makeup of a major studio effort."

Track listing

# "Hello Aquarius" # "This Mad" # "The End" # "Your Sort of Human Being" # "Fetching Decay" # "Hook Machine" # "Wisdom Bus" # "89 Days of Alcatraz" # "Headline Girl" # "July" # "Big Day" # "Doomsday"

References

1997 albums Emm Gryner albums {{1990s-pop-album-stub