Miniature Tigers
Mia Pharaoh
Release Date: Mar 6, 2012
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Record label: Modern Art
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Album Review: Mia Pharaoh by Miniature Tigers
Excellent, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 5/5
On their first two albums, this Brooklyn-via-Phoenix indie-pop crew chiefly trafficked in playful psychedelia. Album three opens with a pair of curveballs, the horndog electro-disco fantasies "Sex on the Regular" and "Female Doctor." The lyrics are pure R. Kelly kitsch ("I'm your secret/You can take me out and play me like a saxophone"), but the tunes are as sneakily hummable as ever, and frontman Charlie Brand makes a surprisingly decent Romeo.
Based on rating B
Miniature Tigers dodged a sophomore slump and separated themselves from the rest of the Brooklyn-based indie pack with their 2010 release, Fortress. But despite favorable reviews from CoS, Pitchfork, and Entertainment Weekly, the album never accrued enough buzz to launch the band into the forefront of popular music, Ã la Foster the People or most recently Gotye. That could all very well be about to change given Mia Pharaoh’s sexy set of synthed-up pop songs.
Based on rating 7/10
Four tracks into Miniature Tigers' 2010 sophomore effort, Fortress, the band delivered a blippy, keyboard-driven piece of electronic-dance and psych-inflected pop called "Gold Skull" that stood out from the rest of the album's more earthy, guitar-based eclecticism. The band's 2012 studio follow-up, Mia Pharaoh, picks up on "Gold Skull"'s goofy '70s/'80s synth pop-meets-bedroom-psych-pop vibe while still retaining the band's melodic lyricism. Bringing to mind the work of such similarly minded contemporaries as Of Montreal, solo Julian Casablancas, Black Kids, and others, Mia Pharaoh hits strong with the lead-off "Sex on the Regular" and the dancey bit of eye-winking camp, "Female Doctor.
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