Mini Mansions – Mini Mansions

Michael Shuman is best known for his role as bassist in Queens of the Stone Age, but this side-project – also incorporating Tyler Parkford and Zach Dawes – bears little resemblance to his day job. Instead, Mini Mansions’ debut is an accomplished collection of luxuriantly baroque pop. The songs have a jaunty-yet-melancholy quality that recall Elliot Smith, and for the most part are layered with the kind of dreamy psychedelia which characterises some of The Beatles’ weirder moments – Abbey Road in particular.

The single, Monk, betrays Shuman’s hard rock connections in its driving rhythm section, but this is overlaid with pulsing organ and vocal harmonies that Teenage Fanclub would be proud of. There is certainly no shortage of energy on Mini Mansions, but it’s channelled into an unashamedly upbeat approach that contrasts markedly with the tone of QOTSA records. Stoner rockers might be disappointed, but if carefully-crafted psych-pop is your thing, this is certainly worth a listen. [Sam Wiseman]