We Are Scientists: Brain Thrust Mastery
We Are Scientists: Tired out.
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Friday, 14, Mar 2008 08:54
Virgin Music, out March 17th.
In a nutshell.
Upbeat, spiky, nerdy, accessible, indie-lite.
What's it all about?
We Are Scientists return with their 'difficult' second album for a major label, following the loss of their drummer and two years touring alongside the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys and Maximo Park.
Up-tempo beats, jerky guitars and soaring harmonies are the order of the day across eleven tracks that recall similar fare from the likes of Hot Hot Heat, the Rapture and possibly a dash of the Killers.
Who's it by?
Following a number of self-released EP's in the United States, We Are Scientists hit the music scene in 2005 with their critically acclaimed debut long-player With Love And Squalor.
The album spawned three singles which did marginally more business in the UK than their home country and the band later went on to garner some kudos from appearances on various US TV shows.
Despite this extra attention and the courting of BBC Radio One hit-makers Jo Whiley and Edith Bowman, We Are Scientists have yet to bother the mainstream in any significant way - perhaps something which Brain Thrust Mastery hopes to fix.
As an example.
"This night is winding down but/Time means nothing/As always at this hour/Time means nothing/One final round 'cos/Time means nothing/Say that you'll stay/Say that you'll stay," - After Hours
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Acne-plagued teens with trousers so tight they hopefully restrict their future fertility will love it. Ageing DJs and trendy parents will pretend to like it and it will probably pick up a few minor awards at events featuring Donny Tourette and Peaches Geldof on the guest list.
What the others say
"An album that sacrifices identity in a scramble for catchy tunes,." - Dave Simpson, Guardian
"The synth-driven pulse of Lethal Enforcer or the arch cleverness of Altered Beast take on all the 'right' tropes from 80s art rock to Weezer-ish punk-lite grunge." - Dennis O'Dell, bbc.co.uk.
So is it any good?
In this modern age of genre-bending crossovers and experimental digitally enhanced indie music the simplicity of two guitars, a drummer and a fringe is apparently no longer enough.
The trousers must be tighter, the t-shirts more luminous and the music reverential of a time few can properly remember. So lets get this out of the way first of all - the 80s were rubbish. Everyone was poor, Ian Curtis was dead and telly finished at midnight.
Despite this, it has become de rigeur to view that bygone age of dole queues and mining strikes through fluorescent tinted lenses and We Are Scientists have continued in this vein.
Their debut album With Love And Squalor had some catchy little tunes, but not enough to warrant revisiting two years down the line - and with Brain Thrust Mastery, this is really all the band are doing.
Hot Hot Heat and the Rapture were doing this years ago, until the Killers came along and did it for the mainstream masses. During this time, Mars Volta were doing something far more groundbreaking and mind-bending elsewhere - leaving flat pointless drivel like this, thankfully, without a real place in the world.
If you were thinking about buying this I would recommend you check it out in advance - it will be on the speakers in your local branch of H&M for the next two weeks, check the skinny jeans section.
1/10
Noel Mellor
"Deary me, you really don't like skinny jeans do you? More of a review of a set of people you don't like than the album, which is very good and a hell of a lot different from their first, but not in a bad way. You can definitely tell that their drummer has left, as the emphasis seems to be a lot more on song writing." - J B