We Are Scientists, "With Love and Squalor"

We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor

Fresh, fun, and innocent, We Are Scientists offer stylish Indie Rock on With Love and Squalor. Like a handful of kittens, you won't want to put them down.

We Are Scientists ooze stylistic indie rock on their 2006 release, With Love and Squalor. The kitten-cuddling band - Brooklyners who play up the nerd-look with their suits and knitware, retro-70s hair and gawky publicity photos - sing about paralysis ("Can't Lose"), party-fallout ("Inaction"), dissatisfaction with traditional masculinity ("The Great Escape"), and celebrate general do-nothingism with a certain nerdy flair. This band may be attending parties, but they're not always enjoying them.

The opening track, "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt", is one of the album's strongest and its simplistic, hook-driven lyrics ("My body is your body / I won't tell anybody / If you wanna use my body / Go for it, yeah") provide the perfect antidote for teens coming of age in abstinence-only America.

The unexpected slow-down two minutes into "Can't Lose" is a heavenly pause in an already excellent track, and the lyrics in "Textbook" are some of the band's most clever and biting ("Twenty years of bad decisions haven't taught me much at all... Twist my arm if that's the way you think you're gonna work this whole thing out / You know you own my body but don't think that you control my mouth").

Earnest, clever lyrics are sung by lead guitarist and singer Keith Murray - who plays around with vocal delivery and is clearly having a ball. The lyrics, along with shimmering guitar riffs, keep "With Love and Squalor" interesting. Chris Cain provides solid bass and backup vocals. But it's the drumming, by Michael Tapper, that warrants special mention; Tapper pedals hard behind the lyrics and guitars, and the quality of drumming provides that extra oomph an Indie band needs to stand out from the crowd. Tapper provides that harsh edge in songs like "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt", but also shows his skill by breaking into virtuoso performances: witness the blissful complexity of "This Scene is Dead", "The Great Escape" and "Worth the Wait". The drumming on the latter constructs a creatively complex frame for the melody of the song.

We Are Scientists played at the recent South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. SXSW is a showcase for artists, mostly attended by those in the music industry, so We Are Scientists' appearance will undoubtedly raise their profile in 2006. The band already seems somewhat preoccupied by their recent break into the music scene ("Cash Cow", "It's a Hit", and elsewhere). Here's hoping they ride the publicity bronco long enough to produce a second CD.

Check out the We Are Scientists website and My Space page for music samples, photos, band information, including tour dates ("We are always on tour"), and to connect with other fans.

Virgin Records

Rating: 3/5

Highlights: "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt", "Can't Lose", "The Great Escape", "Textbook"

Similar to: Franz Ferdinand, The Cribs

First published on Suite 101