We Are Scientists return with ‘Error Operator’
Indie legends We Are Scientists have released their first new music of the year, coming in the form of the expansive track ‘Operator Error’, which sees them considerably enlarge their sound.
The song leans heavily on electronics, with synths, textures and vocal effects creating a sound that is something of a blend of Before the Dawn Heals Us–era M83 and early cuts by The Killers, whilst throwing in a twist of the influential Talkie Walkie by Air for good measure.
As is customary for the New york duo, it comes with an earworm of a chorus, meaning that the song will be receiving airplay, despite longtime fans of the band enjoy this new sound or not. Whilst the track is good, it’s not without some cheesier elements, but this is We Are Scientists, they’ve never taken themselves too seriously, so we shouldn’t either.
It appears that ‘Operator Error’ is the first part of more news that is to be revealed “shortly”. The band’s last album came in the form of 2021’s Huffy, so one might expect a new full-length on the way.
Discussing the new single, bassist Chris Cain said: “It starts with what sounds like a countdown timer for some kind of destructive alien device, but ends up being a countdown timer for one of the punchiest little pop songs on Earth. So the usual first-listen reaction is joy mixed with quite a bit of relief.”
“I have a tendency to deliver hot takes and to get extraordinarily overheated about utterly inconsequential things,” frontman Keith Murray said of the song’s provenance and his “big mouth”.
Murray continued: “I got into a multi-hour argument over whether Top Gun: Maverick is a halfway decent movie. Maybe it’s weird, then, that I also tend to be pretty sanguine over big issues. It’s fairly hard to drag me into a heated fight, or to get me to say something that I’ll later come to regret.”
The frontman concluded: “On important matters, I like to keep quiet, to listen to everyone else’s take, and to silently build my own bullet-proof argument, which nobody else will ever hear. I operate in dual modes – one where I’m apt to deliver my dumb opinion with little provocation, and one in which it’s almost impossible to get me to say what I’m really thinking. It’s probably a pretty frustrating character trait for the people who are trying to engage me in consequential conversation, and I apologise to my friends and my enemies, alike”.
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