Feeling that she had perfected dreamy swirling pop with
Afterglow,
Dot Allison edges toward electro dance territory and beyond on her sophomore album, We Are Science, and the results are nothing short of brilliant. Working the production boards herself, with some help from
Two Lone Swordsmen's
Keith Tenniswood and contributors
Mercury Rev and
Death in Vegas,
Allison looks back to Factory Records,
Kraftwerk, and house music for inspiration. Alternately lush and lo-fi, the album seeks the trance-y dirges of
Afterglow, but adds huge pockets of exhilarating grooves, weird throbbing beats, analog synthesizers, sweeping strings, and echoing, twinkling pianos. What's truly remarkable is that
Allison is able to touch upon so many influences and skirt so many genres, but there's not an element that feels out of place. It's not just expert sequencing that holds the album together. It's
Allison's fearless experimentation, genius sense of melody, urgent lyrics, and commanding vocals that make for such a winning opus. The retro touches of "Make It Happen," "Strung Out," and "I Think I Love You" honor influences from
Wire to
New Order to
the Human League to
Depeche Mode, but
Allison makes the sound her own again and again. "Strung Out" sounds like
Curve produced by
Martin Hannett. When things turn cinematic on "Performance" and "Wishing Stone,"
Allison proves herself a master of atmosphere. Poetic, melodic, and pulsing with enormous amounts of energy, the album sees
Allison virtually creating new genres in the process of exploring her own musical heroes. We Are Science sees
Dot Allison going beyond even the highs of
One Dove and crafting an accessible, evocative masterpiece that consistently surprises and thrills.