Review Summary: Catchy, smart, fun and an all around great indie rock record.
In an industry filled with so many cookie cutter guitar bands that dare call their music "rock" when they're about as poppy as a ***ing Coke and as rock and roll as a starving African, it's hard to stand out, let alone be known for playing quality music. One such band standing out from the crowd is We Are Scientists, with their major label debut: "With Love and Squalor". I'm sure the trio of Keith Murray (guitar/vocals), Chris Cain (bass) and Michael Tapper (drums) practically jizzed themselves when they heard the finished product for the first time.
Genre-wise, I guess it can be said this album is indie rock on the slight verge of becoming *gasp* pop rock, but only in the best possibly way. Whereas in traditional pop rock, lyrics tackle situations found in early adolescence, this record takes that and ages it just enough to be contemporary and relevant for the older brothers of the fans of said pop rock band. So while these older brothers are starting to take up drinking, they can listen to "Can't Lose" and hear Keith Murray's opening lyrics: "This party's alright but I might wanna stop drinking" and laugh and agree in their drunken stupor. So in essence, this album is lyrically and stylistically a way more mature brand of pop rock, pop in how it's seriously catchy and accessible, and rock in how it ***ing rocks when asked to. Songs like "Callbacks" and "Inaction" put the rock in indie rock, definitely. Flurries of sonic revelry, hats crashing, downstroke after downstroke of Telecaster power chords, bass driving like Happy mother***ing Hogan are present in the best moments.
But another great thing about this album is the dynamics. For example, The verses of "Can't Lose" are guitar empty, barren of anything resembling the twang of Keith's Tele, but then the first chorus comes in, and the twin-piston rhythm section gets further boosted by the wave of power chords Keith plays, after which the guitar sticks for the rest of the song in the form of tremolo picking sections as precise as those Plek machines Gibson uses.
Speaking of precision, did I mention the amount of precision present in this record? Whether it's how whenever Keith did a tremolo section each note was consistent in how strong it was strummed, how whenever there was a muted section during a riff, it was never done too early, or too late, or how Chris and Michael had perfect chemistry, bass locking in with drums with the efficiency of a ***ing Yale lock. And the best part is, is that it didn't rob the album of spontaneity, in fact, they could easily lip sync to this and pretend to be playing live. But that's now how they roll, do they?
Lyrically, this album is also pretty great. The wording is great, the themes are relevant and contemporary, and best of all, all these songs hold tangible, real meanings that anyone can embrace and post all over their Facebook as statuses. I'm assuming plenty of teenage girls would set their status as "My body is your body, I won't tell anybody" on whatever IM clients they're using on first listen of "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt", fully aware of its meaning of unwavering dedication in a relationship... or something like that. These songs are absolutely perfect for those songs you have a first kiss to, or confess your love to, despite the massive amounts of energy, but the raw cheese romance present in this album's lyrics is staggering, and perfect for *** like a first kiss/date/yiff/whatever.
Aside from a few seriously unnoticeable flaws, this album is magnificent. And if you like your music with a perfect balance of intelligence, catchiness and overall quality, I'd highly recommend this album for you.
