We Are Scientists - Crap Attack
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We Are Scientists
Release Date: 06/11/06
Label: Virgin
Rating: 4/10
Oddly enough, writing a review is that much harder when the album’s name says it all. Still, let’s soldier on: here we have an odds and sods collection from the stylishly hirsute NYC indie boys. Of course, due to its very nature it can't be judged on the same terms as a ‘proper’ album.
So let us look at the B-sides compilation as an art form. The best amongst them present a set of material that genuinely makes you wonder why such songs never appeared on an album. Well, not so here. One can quite imagine why tunes like ‘Surprise’ (a misnomer, if ever there was one) and opener ‘Ram It Home’ were displaced - the latter in particular, with its annoying trait of seeming like it's about to spring to life and never doing so.
It’s not all new crap, though. Over one third of this compilation is given over to utterly pedestrian remixes and alternative versions, including four stripped-down (or ‘Under The Sea’) versions of tracks from ‘With Love And Squalor’, one of which is - yes! - ‘Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt’, perhaps the most over-released song in recent memory. Hilariously, the amputation of its previous bluster leaves the terrible sixth-form poetry of the lyrics naked for all to hear.
Established fans of We Are Scientists may well welcome the collection of these songs on a single disc, and the value for money is commendable - as well as a fifteen-track album, you get a DVD of a show at Shepherd’s Bush and videos for every track on their debut album. It’s just that a B-sides collection at this stage of a band’s career seems a little odd, particularly when the quality is this low. When it comes down to it, this lacks the winning formula - and that could be a crucial miscalculation.
Garreth F. Hirons
We Are Scientists Official Site
We Are Scientists Myspace
Buy We Are Scientists CDs | Buy We Are Scientists mp3s | Buy We Are Scientists Tickets | Buy We Are Scientists Merch
Release Date: 06/11/06
Label: Virgin
Rating: 4/10
Oddly enough, writing a review is that much harder when the album’s name says it all. Still, let’s soldier on: here we have an odds and sods collection from the stylishly hirsute NYC indie boys. Of course, due to its very nature it can't be judged on the same terms as a ‘proper’ album.
So let us look at the B-sides compilation as an art form. The best amongst them present a set of material that genuinely makes you wonder why such songs never appeared on an album. Well, not so here. One can quite imagine why tunes like ‘Surprise’ (a misnomer, if ever there was one) and opener ‘Ram It Home’ were displaced - the latter in particular, with its annoying trait of seeming like it's about to spring to life and never doing so.
It’s not all new crap, though. Over one third of this compilation is given over to utterly pedestrian remixes and alternative versions, including four stripped-down (or ‘Under The Sea’) versions of tracks from ‘With Love And Squalor’, one of which is - yes! - ‘Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt’, perhaps the most over-released song in recent memory. Hilariously, the amputation of its previous bluster leaves the terrible sixth-form poetry of the lyrics naked for all to hear.
Established fans of We Are Scientists may well welcome the collection of these songs on a single disc, and the value for money is commendable - as well as a fifteen-track album, you get a DVD of a show at Shepherd’s Bush and videos for every track on their debut album. It’s just that a B-sides collection at this stage of a band’s career seems a little odd, particularly when the quality is this low. When it comes down to it, this lacks the winning formula - and that could be a crucial miscalculation.
Garreth F. Hirons
We Are Scientists Official Site
We Are Scientists Myspace
Buy We Are Scientists CDs | Buy We Are Scientists mp3s | Buy We Are Scientists Tickets | Buy We Are Scientists Merch
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