St. Mannequins

St. Mannequins seems to be a band with the intentions to make people happy, and it works. Their gentle tunes portray a rare sincerity, with voices like bells that still sound certain. Child-like songwriting, with lyrics about dinosaurs and grooms shaped just like silos are never corny and instead add to the enchantment that the every song feeds the listener. Listening feels like eating cake with strawberry frosting and rainbow sprinkles: sweet, pretty, addictive.

‘Wyoming’ opens their EP and is instantly beautiful. It has the kind of optimism that in turn fills you with high hopes for what is to come, and has the ability of making one happy on the spot.

‘Why can’t we write a love song?’ gives the impression of a lullaby, with a healthy serving of “la la la”s, and is about just why they allegedly can’t write a love song. Interestingly enough, they do a fairly good job of it as they explore just what went wrong in their love lives, and end up cooing, “Hey, none of this is that important. We just tricked you into being our new boyfriends.” The listener may not be sure how much of a joke that was, but it does not make the situation uncomfortable, a trick that testifies to the hypnotic qualities of the tiny sounds and tiny voices that the St. Mannequins use to make their music.

However, the humor of the duo is confirmed (uh…maybe) on the next track titled ‘Knock me up’, a country-infused little ditty whose chorus is “la la la, I want your baby. Please please please just knock me up.” It is not the first track of its kind on the EP; the second track, ‘Out of bed, big untruth’ is another straight-up country song, about shooting a cheater. ‘Baby Joe’ is also similar, both with the country influence and content matter. This time, though, the girls escape their broken marriages, proclaiming “'Cause after ya’ll know, it’s ladies over bros!”


‘Dinosaurs’ is the most appealing of all, with lyrics that may seem overly goofy when attempted by someone else, but the girls possess such an honesty in their music that it is hard to doubt them for a second when they claim that “if I were a big fat elephant, I would hang out with that rhino in the sky”.

‘Fairy Princess’ is more somber than the other tracks and closes the disc about a fairy princess that falls to earth, but is no less pleasing to the ear. In fact, as far as guitars go, it is a favorite on the disc.

The St. Mannequins embody all things beautiful and sweet, and make soft yet satisfying songs that get stuck in your head after the first listen. Not to worry, though; it’ll just put you into a good mood and make you feel pretty.

Upcoming gigs for St. Mannequins include:
Annex on May 27th & the SHE-BANG festival (a Long Island girl band festival) in June. They are also going to be recording this summer for their upcoming album.
Many of their tracks are available for download on their myspace.
St. Mannequins (myspace)
'Wyoming' - St. Mannequins
'Sharks'- St. Mannequins
'Fairy Princess' - St. Mannequins