Miniatures

Dead Flowers, the third album from Kitchener rockers the Miniatures and their second for venerable Canadian indie MapleMusic, finds the band both expanding upon and streamlining the pop rock sounds that dominated 2004’s Maple debut Coma Kid. Produced by Scott Shields (Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, the Marble Index), Dead Flowers opens strong with "Any Day Now,” a catchy appropriation of the hook-filled dance rock currently burning up the airwaves, and rarely lets up throughout. Indeed, much of Dead Flowers is driven by similarly danceable guitar numbers (as on the falsetto-laden title track) but there’s also room for good old fist-pumpin’ rockers ("Loosen Your Grip”) and bona fide rock’n’roll ballads ("Help Me Fall”). Elsewhere, the band are able to stretch out musically on the mid-tempo synth rock of "Curious” and the moody "Would You Kill If You Had To.” And, despite the bitch-slapping of commercial radio administered on the angry "Sleaze Radio,” Dead Flowers’ lively dynamics and impressive vocal melodies should find the Miniatures featured on more FM playlists than not.