BarbaraWE ARE SCIENTISTS

Barbara

[Masterswan/Megaforce]

On a micro level—minutes and seconds—We Are Scientists is obsessed with time. On its third album, the New York City trio moves quickly from hook-worthy verses to still-catchier choruses, offering little that cannot be hummed. The stopwatch is constantly running, and even on the Goth-tinged ballad “Pittsburgh,” founders Keith Murray and Chris Cain won’t let things drag. In a macro sense—eras in rock history—Murray and Cain are less precise, more willing to wander. Barbara starts in the early 1980s, with the Fixx-like new wave of “Rules Don’t Stop,” then fast-forwards to 2004, the year of Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out,” the template for the Scientists’ “I Don’t Bite.” Later, Murray and Cain prove their rock mettle, festooning “Nice Guys” and “Jack & Ginger” with melodies Jimmy Eat World never got around to writing. These and other styles coalesce into a slick, seamless, bubblegum disco-rock hybrid.

–Kenneth Partridge

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