White Magic is a four-song EP that includes songs about dinosaurs’ eating habits, using magic to make someone fall in love with you, octopi, and vikings. It’s a lot of subject matter to cover in just four songs. Miniature Tigers are a duo from Phoenix, Arizona, featuring songwriter Charlie Brand on vocals, guitar, keyboards, and whatever else is handy. Rick Schaier provides the drums and backing vocals. The EP opens with “Dino Damage”, a jaunty, earnestly sung tune about the perils of holding on to a friend when they are bitten by a dinosaur. Brand’s honest-sounding vocal performance (with just a hint of sadness), makes the song amusing instead of cloying. Title track “White Magic” is plaintive yet catchy, while the down-tempo “Octopus” features the refrain “Your tentacles are crushing meeeee!” The brief disc closes with “Viking Hearts”, a somewhat less silly acoustic love ballad. White Magic is a highly entertaining nugget of pure pop with a whimsical sense of humor. The band also released a companion EP simultaneously, appropriately titled Black Magic, but unfortunately Modern Art Records only sent me White Magic to review.

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