2008 Woodie Awards
Hit singles can't carry Scientists' debut album
The Acorn Drew U.
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At first glance, indie-rock trio We Are Scientists? full length debut, With Love and Squalor, seems promising. After all, the disc itself is pink and the cover art is a picture of the band members each holding a kitten. Anyone who knows me realizes that these two things are a sure-fire way to my heart.
Sadly, though, what they say about books and their covers also applies to CDs. With Love and Squalor isn?t bad per-se ? it?s just boring. For 12 tracks, it appears as if Scientists want to sound like other bands, most notably their former tour-mates Hot Hot Heat. They seem more concerned with trying to make every track into a perfect single than with anything else.
This brash, vaguely spastic approach almost works for the first part of the CD. The first track, ?Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt,? was also the first single released off the album, and a lot of the band?s hype was based on it.
With the prominent bass, the angular guitars and with lead singer Keith Murray delivering lines such as ?If you want my body/Go for it, yeah,? it?s easy to see why. Now if only the rest of the album didn?t sound EXACTLY THE SAME.
The best tracks on the album are the ones where the band stops trying so hard. On ?The Great Escape,? Murray manages to infuse the repetitive lyrics with a youthful urgency, while Chris Cain on bass and Michael Tapper on drums actually sound like they?re having fun.
The slightly slower ?Can?t Lose? serves as a perfect example of what We Are Scientists could achieve with a little restraint. The band holds off on the hooky-ness, opting to build to an insanely catchy chorus that is much more effective than anything else on the album.
The album wears thin near the end. The last two tracks are practically interchangeable ? they sound like draft versions of the same unsuccessful single.
We Are Scientists falls prey to the dreaded ?M? word ? mediocrity. Aside from the two exceptions, With Love and Squalor has the overall feeling of being indie-rock elevator music.
They do get a gold star for their album cover, though. You just can?t go wrong with kittens.