We Are Scientists - Barbara

With the release of 2006's breakout second album With Love and Squalor (and the succeeding album Brain Thrust Mastery released in 2008), We Are Scientists has since become a successful indie rock songwriting duo (composed of lead vocalist and guitarist Keith Murray and bass guitarist and back-up vocalist Chris Cain) known for catchy hooks, sharp melodies and playful but heartfelt lyrics. Barbara, the band's fourth album, has much of what their fans have come to expect from their music – perhaps too much.

This effort has all the stylistic elements that have defined the band, just not at the level of their two previous albums. Barbara contains nothing as witty as With Love and Squalor's “Nobody Move Nobody Gets Hurt” nor does it boast anything as engaging or heartwarming as Brain Thrust Mastery's “After Hours”. Yet, Barbara does contain songs that are witty and some which can be heartwarming. It's as if the band is going through the same motions as before but they've lost the edge that made that made their previous works refreshing.

However, the duo's forth effort does mark an improvement in the mechanics and development of We Are Scientist's sound. Much of the credit for this technical development is due to new drummer Andy Burrows. He is a good match for the sound of the band and he provides creative arrangements (especially in “You Should Learn”) although he did better work in the more eclectic structure of his previous band Razorlight.

The band's more intricate sound is most apparent on the slow and haunting Pittsburgh, with Murray singing “All we want is to be together” over layered guitars while Burrow rolls deep-sounding drums in the background. The combination produces a dark, haunted sort of sound which contrasts well with the song’s mundane lyrics dealing with the pointless frustrations of flirting.

But while the structural development of “Pittsburgh” complements the content of the song, the sounds in Barbara are much too often a replacement for content. This is because while We Are Scientists is still succeeding at the things it does best, it is also hindered by the limitations it has always struggled with. Cain doesn't create riffs longer than a couple stanzas and Murray is still rarely able to make vocals purely emotional or purely witty. He only seems to know how to tease that line, while too-often ending up with lyrics which are vague and empty.

In a very simple way, the lack of content can be noticed in the much too repetitive nature of many of the album's tracks. For the first three songs of the album, the choruses are almost exclusively made up of one line repeated over and over. Murray sings “Rules don't stop me, forget about it”, “I don't bite but you can't believe it” and “If you're the nice guy act like the nice guy” as the respective choruses for the first three songs of the album, aptly named “Rules Don't Stop”, “I Don't Bite” and “Nice Guys”.

Repetition is not always a bad thing. In fact, sometimes it is an absolutely necessary part of good thematic elements within an album. However, in this instance, it is a clear replacement for content. After a full listen, Barbara doesn't yield one theme or idea attractive enough to latch on to.

In many ways, the new album is just as pretty as We Are Scientists' previous efforts, it's just not as engaging. In short, Barbara is a very listenable record, but it's also very forgettable.

Rating: 3/5 Stars