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We Are Scientists
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With Love And Squalor
Virgin Records
Release: 1/10/2006
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Rated:
Review by:
Jason Warner
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As I sat here listening to With Love And
Squalor for the first time I am about to puke. No, it's
not from something I ate. It's not from a stomach flu virus.
It's not stress. It's because of an out of tune bass guitar. It
is nauseating and it is simply retarded. And this is on a
major label record. Simply amazing. Before writing my
review I did a quick scan of some other reviews of the
album on the Internet to see if anyone else made mention of
this startling flaw on the album. No one else seemed to
mind the out of tuneness of the bass guitar, but honestly,
what may have been a decent album otherwise was
relegated to the pooh-pooh pile very quickly just for the fact
I couldn't stand that slightly out of tune noise coming out of
my speakers. I even thought for a while that I was crazy.
After double checking my meds and taking a break for a
couple days I revisited With Love And Squalor
and was to my dismay again greeted with squalor, but no
love. Too bad too, as what I heard in the song writing was
not bad. The production was not bad. The playing was
actually quite good. I liked the guitars and vocals, the
drums were sounding great, and even the bass sounded
good, albeit out of tune. The bass lines were active and
outgoing and quite interesting by themselves. But they were
not there by themselves and they were not playing nicely
with others. It wasn't even very out of tune, but just enough
to grate on my nerves to the point that I couldn't subject
myself to repeated listening.
We Are Scientists are not playing music we haven't heard
many times before, especially in the recent past. They are
mining the same territory already claimed by Hot Hot Heat,
but with admittedly less keys and much more guitars.
However, while Hot Hot Heat is a fun, dance-punk/pop group
with some irresistibly contagious pop songs, We Are
Scientists focus maybe a little more on the making of music
and less on the making of songs. That's not to say the
music was bad, definitely not, but the lyrics are your typical
attempt at sex appeal ala Iggy Pop, but missing the reckless
abandon. Maybe they weren't going for excitement. Maybe
they were just trying to get people to dance, but if so, it
would have been very helpful to invest in a tuner for the
bassist prior to the recording session.
There are potential hits here, such as "Nobody Move,
Nobody Get Hurt" or "Can't Lose," which is a really great
song. But ultimately this is a sound that has been done
before and done better by other groups. Not to say those
groups are better, but they got there first and got played out
on the radio first and now I am sick of the sound. Sorry, We
Are Scientists, I wish I had met you sooner. Apparently the
band has been around since 2001. It's a shame we're just
now hearing of them because otherwise their faux 70s
haircuts, suit coats, and retro pop sound would seem quite
new and original. |
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