Miniature Tigers

Tell It To The Volcano

[4.5/5]

Staking their claim on the quirkier side of the indie-rock spectrum, Miniature Tigers have packed their first full-length with pop songs devoted to cannibal queens, haunted pyramids, crying along to Tchaikovsky and how dinosaurs make dangerous pets (“If you hold on they’ll puncture your lungs and separate your spine from your skull”). At times, the sound suggests a loopier Ben Kweller sitting in with the Flaming Lips, making the most of a pop sensibility that can reference Eye Of The Tiger, strut like Heart Of Glass and hit you with a psychedelic surf-rock harmony before the song is through. While nearly every track rewards repeated listening, they barely need a time or two to lodge inside your brain. (MODERN ART; modernartrecords.com) Ed Masley