Released 01/03/10

Talitres Records



Part noise band, part folk songsmiths, Scary Mansion is Brooklyn based singer-songwriter Leah Hayes, with a little help from some band mates and sister Vanessa on backing vocals.
 
Though the album cover and band name may mislead you into thinking this is some kind of punk effort, the record is infact comprised of catchy although perhaps slightly generic, indie pop numbers in a similar vein to that of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. 
 
Opener "No Law" actually disguards its name by neatly following all the rules for the construction of a good pop-rock song: building up momentum with Ben Shapiro's pounding drumming and keeping it in check with Hayes's Chan Marshall-inspired drowsy vocals, its repetitious song structure holds you in a realm of familiarity, perhaps in thrall to YYYs "Maps" or Cat Power's "He-War". Yet while this is the one thing that makes such an album appealing it is also its downfall in that while perfectily executed, everything Hayes lays out has been done over many times before.
 
While the sparsity of lyrics allows the creativity to flow out through the chocolatey vocals of Hayes who conveys so much emotion through a desert of words, Shapiro's drums conversly add an energy to the melacholic wisdom put forth through titles such as "Fatal Flaw" and "Scum Inside". These two factors (vocals and drumming) are definately the pinnacle of Scary Mansion's talents and I'm sure live they would blow most others out of the water.
 
By no means a bad album, it is a good 8 out of 10, but that number could have crept up a deal if this was new: if this was Cat Power's Moon Pix in a different guise and a year before. Still, why slate someone for sounding like someone else relatively brilliant; this is a good spinner of a record.

Posted In Album Reviews, Feb 28 2010. Words - Melanie