There's something wickedly freeing about
We Are Scientists
' eighth album, 2023's
Lobes
. If 2021's
Huffy
found the band recapturing much of the hooky post-punk of their early work,
is an equally buoyant album that finds the group drawing from the sleek, clubby sound of '80s acts like
New Order
and
Depeche Mode
. It's a combination that the band have been exploring for over a decade, and one that has gained a deeper resonance in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was while in lockdown during the pandemic that the trio of lead singer/guitarist
Keith Murray
, bassist
Chris Cain
, and drummer
Keith Carne
recorded both
back to back. Consequently,
feels like a darker, midnight companion piece to its brighter, day drive-friendly predecessor. That vibe of finally coming out of lockdown yet still needing time to work yourself up for contact with others drives much of the emotionality of
. On "Dispense with Sentiment"
Murray
illuminates the idea, singing "It's like I'm winding up to speak for the first time in weeks." Equally potent atmospheres pop up elsewhere, as on the dusky dance-rock Tropicalia of "Human Resources" and the sparkling
-does-disco number "Turn It Up." There's also the dichotomously Teutonic and sensual
Giorgio Moroder
-esque anthem "Less from You," in which
croons about a toxic relationship or behavior over a whipcrack beat and icy guitar accents, singing "Enough is always enough/Until it's not." It's that feeling of needing to get out of the house and away from your family, or perhaps yourself, that
distill with lab precision on
. ~ Matt Collar