In the many years after Scientists split in 1987, the group's leader Kim Salmon pursued a wide range of musical activities including solo work, psychedelic trip-hop, acoustic folk, and noisy pop. When he re-formed Scientists in 2016, it was clear that he was ready to get back to making some serious skronking noise again. With the 1986 lineup of the band (guitarist Tony Thewlis, bassist Boris Sujdovic, and drummer Leanne Cowie) in tow, Scientists toured, then revisited the recording studio with the initial results -- a couple of singles and the 2019 EP 9H2O.SiO2 -- being quite promising. Fans of the group's devastating blend of swampy guitars, gritty-as-quicksand vocals, swaggering rhythms, and dark tales of heartbreaking woe will be glad to know that all those elements are in place to a large degree on their first post-comeback album, Negativity. Salmon's vocals are commanding and limber; he hasn't lost any of his innate ability to completely take over a song with a sneer and a grunted aside. The rest of the bandmembers sound invested and as tough as ever. Drummer Cowie pushes the band with simple force, Sudjovic's bass playing is rock-solid, and the swashbuckling guitar work of Thewlis and Salmon is as dangerously electric as a downed power line. When they all lock into place, as on the buzzsaw rocker "Outsider" or the careening "Seventeen," it's as if no time has passed and the band are still in a dingy mid-'80s club, sweating it out for the true believers.

1		Outsider
2		Make It Go Away
3		Naysayer
4		Safe
5		Magic Pants
6		Seventeen
7		The Science of Suave
8		I Wasn't Good At Picking Friends
9		Moth Eaten Velvet
10		Dissonance
11		Outer Space Boogie

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