Scary Mansion/ Make You Cry

Scary Mansion
Make Me Cry
(Talitres Records)

Make Me Cry is the second LP from Scary Mansion, led by Brooklyn based musician, illustrator and all-round renaissance girl Leah Hayes. Despite the ghostly artwork, what lies beneath is a rather harmless indie pop record.
Building on the more downbeat, folk foundations of debut album Every Joke is Half the Truth, they’ve honed that record’s tendency towards drone drenched introspection, and cast off any comparisons to early Cat Power.
This new approach is typified by the soaring ‘Yer Grief’. Vocals float high over the perfectly produced new wave guitar work. However, despite the forceful melody it all seems quite distant, clean and mechanical.
Hayes’ voice is much more affecting when her frailties are exposed through sparse instrumental backing. Songs such as ‘Fatal Flaw’ or ‘On My Mind’ are the real treats here. The latter, a deeply affecting piano led waltz, highlights Hayes’ lyrics for the first time; their sentiment finally hitting home as she lists the modern afflictions of others and laments, "oh how I wish, their problems could be mine".
Closing with the ghoulish auto-tune of ‘Look Through Your Eyes’, a slow dirge that flows like a spooked out Beach House, Make Me Cry is, without doubt, a step into the mainstream for Scary Mansion. However, it’s the bare bones and broken ballads that punctuate the album’s brasher moments that truly haunt.