''Guy Walks into a Bar...'' is the third album by American band

Mini Mansions Mini Mansions are an American band founded by Zach Dawes, Tyler Parkford, and Queens of the Stone Age bassist Michael Shuman. Mini Mansions' style has been compared to The Beatles, Elliott Smith, and Fountains of Wayne (though this comparison ha ...

, released on July 26, 2019. It includes the single "GummyBear".

Background

The album's recording started in December 2015 and, as the band members were occupied with separate projects—such as Michael Shuman in

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated QOTSA) is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout mul ...

and

Zach Dawes Zachary Edwin Dawes (born July 2, 1985) is an American musician, producer, engineer, and technician, best known as the bassist for the bands Mini Mansions and The Last Shadow Puppets. He has also made contributions to music by Brian Wilson, L ...

and

Tyler Parkford Tyler Parkford is an American musician, best known as the keyboardist and vocalist for Los Angeles-based band, Mini Mansions. He is also one half of the lounge pop duo Mister Goodnite, and a touring member of the British indie rock band Arctic ...

playing live with

The Last Shadow Puppets The Last Shadow Puppets are an English supergroup consisting of Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Miles Kane ( The Rascals, solo artist), James Ford (Simian, Simian Mobile Disco, music producer), and Zach Dawes ( Mini Mansions). The band releas ...

and

Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. The group consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jamie Cook (guitar, keyboards), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Matt Helders (drums, ...

—recording was finished in 2018. It was written with a "narrative about love in mind", and vocalist Michael Shuman based the lyrics off a relationship he had, "from beginning honeymoon phase jitters to the process of breaking up". The singles off the record were first played when Mini Mansions opened for

on the Australia/ New Zealand leg of the Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino tour.

Reception

''Guy Walks into a Bar...'' has received generally positive reviews by critics with a total score of 79/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, with Roisin O'Connor of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' writing that the album features "sprawling,

psychedelic pop Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included "trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...

to scuzzy

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

and rock references" and has a "superb dynamic that holds the listener's attention, while the band navigate through a single, tumultuous relationship". '' Clash'' called the album an "infectious return, one delivered with confidence and panache. The band's superb songwriting remains intact, while the production has been amplified soaking up fresh elements in the process."

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2019 albums Mini Mansions albums Fiction Records albums