Allan’s World of Music

We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery Review
13 May 2008, Allan @ 5:39 pm

We Are Scientists is a band that I have enjoyed a whole ton. I’ve liked everything they have released/all their songs and you could say they are one of my favorite bands. They are also very funny people in their interviews and their website itself is actually pretty funny. Check out their advice column, I spent a whole day reading it once and I constantly check it. If only they had a blog.

(Yeah I know one of the member’s left…it’s funny though).

Anyway Brain Thrust Mastery came out March 17th in Europe and today in North America. However there have been less then stellar reviews and seemingly very little hype at least from the outlets that I use that constitutes as “hype”.

I think among my friends, I’m alone in my liking of We Are Scientists but I usually like things that are much different from my buddies I guess.

Anyway when first picking up “Brain Thrust Mastery”, I quickly liked their first single After Hours. It’s usually by coincidence but it was ultimately their best pop track. The next track I really dug was “Spoken For” kind of a soft-ballad, a very soft song with simplicity but it works.

After awhile though, the album gets very tiresome and it stays away from being punk with those cool guitar riffs. They try to add to some other elements and it ends up sounding lame or cheesy. I feel like the songs are trying to be too dancey. Take for example the last track “That’s What Counts” it comes off like a cheesy song that would be placed on soap opera rather then a teen drama (not that either is good…).

They come off as being really soft and it’s an big disappointment from their previous record With Love and Squalor. The We Are Scientists need to go back their old formula which focus of remaining rough, loud and riff heavy. Their music takes a huge step back while focusing on being too poppy. It feels like they tried to play it safe and crashed in the process.

There are some elements that are acceptable and they do strut some of their old sound but when more then half the album is rather mediocre, it’s tough to support a band you do like. Not a We Are Scientists record to remember.

It’s just sooo bad in comparison to their other work. I’ll still refrain from giving it below a failing score as they were probably close to perfecting some of these songs but there was always something missing…maybe the loss of their drummer and forcing out a release BEFORE they found a new member wasn’t a good idea.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

These tracks are pretty good:

After Hours by We Are Scientists

Spoken For by We Are Scientists

Buy this album from Insound/CD Universe/Amazon

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