Album Review: Mini Mansions - The Great Pretenders

Queens Of The Stone Age taking a breather has given bassist Michael Shuman his time in the spotlight as Mini Mansions’ leading man and the chance to follow up 2010’s self-titled debut.

The singles plucked from their latest (Death Is A Girl, Vertigo) whetted the appetite with snippets of punchy ’60s tinged rock, but The Great Pretenders teases out the colourful tangle to give us a more encompassing listen of light and shade, like when Creeps chills things out with a lazy lilt and fuzzed-out guitars, then Honey, I’m Home brings things back to bounce and buzz.