On the flip side to the Test Icicles travelling circus we have WE ARE SCIENTISTS. Purveyors of geek chic, they've made an album of immediately punchy, fidgety punk pop and it's fucking fantastic. They're what The Departure always threatened to be, minus the ego and plus self deprecating humour. With 'Love and Squalor' stating a case for album of the year, let the roll call commence.
Running through 'With Love and Squalor' with an electric energy it's pop nugget after punk funk gem. Just take your pick of possible singles. There's the jerking, angular 'Nobody Move, Nobody Get hurt', 'the breathlessly convulsive 'Inaction' or the edgy and agitated 'Callback'.
Neurotic, quirky and obtuse, Keith Murray's lyrics reflect both intelligence and privacy but to an infectiously high tempo it's easy not to take them too seriously, especially as they don't seem to be. When they do pause for breath, Murray and Cain's on stage banter takes some peculiarly educational tangents. How about the utopian back room in Kings College consisting of pudding and Disney films where all crowd surfers go to die, or the merits of sports goggles for the increasingly practical bassist being up for consideration.
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Cain's milk bottle bi-focals and Flanders moustache are perfect for the geek chic concept We Are Scientists have adopted. Incessant drummer Michael Tapper remains a mainly silent member who apparently has the best beard in alternative music whilst Murray's poster boy good looks give him a kind of Seth Cohen appeal.
As the wonderfully itchy 'The Great Escape' closes the show to what's now a partisan crowd it makes you wonder why they didn't arrive on these shores to a glittering fanfare. They're a band who necessitate an immediate love affair and it's only a matter of time before I should be preaching to the converted.
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