# WE ARE SCIENTISTS Open Door Into Neon-Occult Underworld With Announcement Of ‘LOBES’ Out January 20, 2023

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/we-are-scientists-open-door-into-neon-occult-underworld-with-announcement-of-lobes-out-january-20-2023/
- Published: 2022-09-27T14:00:00-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

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![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/81b55c26-
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[[**Open Door Into Neon-Occult Underworld With Announcement Of **_**LOBES**_** Out
January 20, 2023 ****“More ominous, electronic, and way sexier than _Huffy”_

**Lead Single “**[**Operator Error**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=74b368e2ca&e=615f2b8493)**”****

Out Now On Masterswan Recordings

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/848d5b3c-
b4b3-0963-6fb5-60f148e8eb1c.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

**_Lobes _Artwork**

**SEPTEMBER 26, 2022 (NEW YORK, NY) — **Hot off the heels of dropping their fresh
new indie pop hit “[**Operator Error**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=53743495f0&e=615f2b8493),”**
We Are Scientists **announce details for their eighth official studio album** **_**
Lobes**_** **(release date: **January 20, 2023 **_via _**Masterswan Recordings**).
_Lobes_ is expected to see the lovable and dynamic duo (vocalist/guitarist **Keith
Murray** and bassist **Chris Cain**) at their most playful and creatively free, 
continuing to expand upon the band’s feel-good indie rock sound by exploring more
of their own input on production. 

Murray says the album’s lead single “Operator Error” is the song that bridges _Lobes_
with their previous album 2021’s _**Huffy**. “_We consider _Huffy _our daytime record–
it’s an upbeat rock album designed to soundtrack jet ski rides to the Bahamas and
piña colada in aquamarine-tiled jacuzzis. Our new album, _Lobes, _however, is our
nighttime album. As the first song on the record, ‘Operator Error’ soundtracks that
moment when you realize that all of those tiki cocktails you started drinking at
11:00am are going to give you a wicked hangover by sunset, and so your best bet 
is to just keep the party going, consequences be damned!” He adds, “_Lobes _is, 
overall, more electronic, dancier, more ominous, and way sexier than _Huffy;_ ‘Operator
Error’ kicks the door open into that seamy underworld.”  

We Are Scientists - Operator Error (Visualizer)

[⌊We Are Scientists - Operator Error (Visualizer)⌉⌊We Are Scientists - Operator 
Error (Visualizer)⌉
Watch this video on YouTube

**We Are Scientists – Operator Error**

The lyrics for _Lobes_ were written over a stretch of two to three years as the 
songs themselves came to fruition. Though the origins of the first songs begin around
the same time as _Huffy_, they exist in entirely different musical universes. “The
earliest songs like “Operator Error” and “**Dispense With Sentiment**” reflect my
standard level of overthinking everything and bungling romantic interactions, anxiety,
and low-level disfunction,” Murray says. Following those two previous songs, “**
Human Resources**” came very early on in the writing process, and it became their
compass for the rest of the album. “[‘Human Resources’] was the first song for which
the synthesizer part was utterly fundamental, but while it’s an unabashed electronic
dance song, it’s still got that touch of scrappy guitar that is elemental for We
Are Scientists,” he explains noting that the through-line that connects a punky 
song like “Operator Error” to a pop banger like “Turn It Up” is there in “Human 
Resources.” “When we wrote it, I knew we had an album on our hands. It’s the nucleus
of the _Lobes _atom.”

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/_compresseds/e1576e06-
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**WE ARE SCIENTISTS **
**Photo credit**: Dan Monick

When Covid locked everything down, the two essentially shut themselves in their 
studio in midtown Manhattan for months to record _Huffy_. “The vibe in Midtown [
Manhattan] was super unnerving then – it was the dead of winter, bleak as all get-
out, and there wasn’t a single person around for blocks,” he remembers. Some of 
the darker songs on _Lobes_, like “**Here Goes**” and “**Lucky Just to Be Here**”
were written toward the end of that weird period, whereas the most hopeful and exuberant
songs (like “**Turn It Up**” and “**Less From You**”) were written immediately after
they finished post-production on _Huffy. “_We were so psyched to finish _Huffy _after
having given ourselves this formidable challenge of self-producing it and were fairly
exultant with the end result. So that euphoria gave us a burst of further enthusiasm
that colored the songs we wrote after that.” It also didn’t hurt that those later
songs were written when they both left Manhattan – Murray was living on Miami Beach
for a year, “vibing really hard on that tropical scene” and Cain to Utah for a few
months. “That change of scenery gave both of us a chance to clear our heads and 
get a little distance from what we’d been doing,” he says. “Our approach to the 
production on the album got a lot more playful at that point – we would email the
sessions back and forth, and the goal mainly became to surprise and delight one 
another.” They ultimately arranged the track listing for “maximum musical flow,”
but Murray still thinks of the songs on _Lobes _in chronological order – “more than
any other album we’ve made, the songs soundtrack a linear history, for me.”   

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/848d5b3c-
b4b3-0963-6fb5-60f148e8eb1c.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

[[**_Lobes _Tracklist**
1. “[Operator Error](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=791c0ecbe1&e=615f2b8493)“2. “
Dispense With Sentiment”3. “Human Resources”4. “Lucky Just To Be Here”5. “Turn It
Up”6. “Settled Accounts”7. “Here Goes”8. “Parachute”9. “Less From You”10. “Miracle
of ’22”

_**Lobes**_ by** We Are Scientists **is due out** January 20, 2023 **_via_** **Masterswan
Recordings.** **“[**Operator Error**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=f87a1af4e1&e=615f2b8493)”
is out now on all DSPs._ _The album is available to [pre order](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=11770f4d06&e=615f2b8493)
from the band’s webstore, including on Limited Edition “Black Lobe in a Cathode 
Blue Bath” LP.  

**[Website](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=1f44a6498a&e=615f2b8493)
| [Twitter](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=900d27b752&e=615f2b8493)
| [Facebook](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=65cfb7e4ec&e=615f2b8493)
| [Instagram](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=1acd885290&e=615f2b8493)**

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