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Published on 5/8/08
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The Cat Power comparison is unavoidable, and it’s seemingly appeared in everything ever written about Brooklyn artist Leah Hayes and her band Scary Mansion (this review now included). Once you get past the occasionally striking vocal similarity, though—as on “Go to Hell,” where Hayes ends some lines in a softly cracking breath—comparisons just become lazy, as they often are.
Hayes moves her trembling yet strong voice through a variety of dramatic settings: stark piano and drums (“Yer Mom”), guitar and consoling violin (“Scum Inside”), bedroom noise-rock (“Captan”) and noirish roots-pop (“Sorry We Took All Your Money”). Scary Mansion’s vibe is sort of goth, and it’s the sort of that’s key: Though Hayes’s songs (and accomplished artwork) show a flair for the dark side, she comes off as more clear-eyed and resolute than downcast.
—Mike Wolf
Scary Mansion plays the Delancey Wed 30.
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