Scary Mansion hail from Brooklyn, produce shoegaze through a psychedelic filter and are fronted by illustrator/artist/vocalist Leah Hayes. Following on from 2008 debut Every Joke Is Half The Truth, their second full-length offering is denser, more refined, and far more enticing.Whilst Scary Mansion only loosely fit the shoegaze bill in terms of their wall of sound rock outs and often ethereal vocal melodies; the nine songs on offer here have essentially outgrown their genre. Leah Hayes does have a special timbre to her voice, and it’s a defining feature - not wilting but naturally fragile, almost heart-achingly so in parts. Streaming from the speakers as it does from a melange of overdriven, melodic guitars and pounding rhythms, the effect is striking and insidiously charming. The instrumentation unfortunately takes too much of a supporting role occasionally, but nevertheless works wonders juxtaposed to the Hayes sisters‘ vocals. It is perhaps the only real area in which Scary Mansion can so far be accused of lacking imagination.For the latter half of the album, when the tempo gets slowed and the dynamics have the space to shine, Make Me Cry finds a shift in voice. The chorus of the charmingly titled ‘Scum Inside’ sounds, in the best possible way, like The Cranberries, and the downtempo ‘On My Mind’ is haunting, understated and beautiful, if a little too sparse. Still, the transition is smooth, the dynamic change appropriate, and though the album ends as so many do on a mournful, sedate and ultimately unfulfilling song, memories of the greatness of the preceding tracks will still be more than fresh enough to invite a repeat listen immediately.Scary Mansion therefore debunk the myth that a second album need be especially difficult by offering up a natural sounding, earnestly effective record that sets a new personal best and promises greater things to come. What Scary Mansion have is that little extra something in Leah Hayes that turns a promising proposition into an alluring accomplishment. This is one haunted house then that is certainly worth the risk of exploring.

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