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Gone are the days that boy bands melted the hearts of teenage girls worldwide. Tongue-in-cheek, indie-cred rock bands such as the Killers and Fall Out Boy have since replaced them.

We Are Scientists continue the trend of bittersweet, catchy ballads, but speed up the tempo and ditch the gimmicks.

“With Love and Squalor” is the band’s debut, full-length album, and what a debut it is. Rarely does a three-person band achieve such a rich, full sound.

Drummer Michael Tapper stands out in particular. Almost every song on the album is infused with a variation on his excellent stop-on-a-dime percussion.

The album sinks its hooks in with the opening track “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt.” With its pulsing bass line and spasmodic guitar riffs, the track never stops long enough on one thought to tire itself out.

“The Great Escape” is about as straightforward as it gets, but nonetheless features a stand out opening guitar-riff that seems like a perfect choice for T.V. commercials scrambling for hipster credibility.

The whole album seems like it has an attention disorder, which is a great thing for spectators. Never once does the album lose its energy and charm as it zips through tracks like a kid on caffeine.

On “Worth the Wait,” singer Keith Murray laments, “you ask how long I’ve been waiting here, I think you already know.” It’s this type of paramour yet paranoid lyric that is the albums staple.

However, the musicianship is the album’s shining achievement. It doesn’t stray outside of what each song calls for, but never gets too by-the-book to induce any track-skipping blues. There’s also a refreshing lack of synth-rock keyboards that seemingly every new band is trying to recreate.

We Are Scientists are a finely tuned instrument knowingly trying to break those hard-strummed heartstrings.

Rating: Three out of four stars.

To hear a sample of the band’s debut album click here.

Frank Miller can be reached at [email protected].