Two years after the release of
The Great Pretenders,
Mini Mansions'
Michael Shuman,
Zach Dawes, and
Tyler Parkford finally had some downtime from their other bands --
Queens of the Stone Age,
Last Shadow Puppets, and
Arctic Monkeys, respectively -- to record some of their own songs. As on
The Great Pretenders, the
Works Every Time EP reveals more of
Mini Mansions' vulnerability without losing any of their music's glitz and glam. The title track is one of the band's smoothest, poppiest songs yet, with glistening synths and '80s guitar solos polishing soul-baring lyrics like "I don't even know what I'm looking for" to a high shine. Later, "This Bullet"'s synth rock conflates falling in love with a death wish. There's more than a little synthwave influence on
Works Every Time, but
Mini Mansions come by it honestly; keyboards have been an integral part of their sound since the start, and the juxtaposition of sexy electro sounds and desperate words on "Midnight in Tokyo" proves they know how to wield a synth more expressively than many up-and-comers. While the industrial-tinged reworking of
Edwyn Collins' "A Girl Like You" isn't quite as strong as some of their other covers, it echoes the way the EP's original songs teeter between lust and anxiety. As it distills where they've been and where they're going,
Works Every Time reaffirms that
Mini Mansions' EPs are just as important to their body of work as their albums. ~ Heather Phares