Rolling Stones: ** AMG: ****1/2 THE ROLLING STONE REVIEW The Eighties revival ends here. Scot chanteuse Dot Allison has a detached, airy voice that, when paired with heavy synths, is presumably meant to winkingly evoke the tense-lipped, mechanical irony of two decades ago. But droll she ain't: When these songs keep the pretense to a minimum, as on the folksy "Wishing Stone" or the shimmering "Strung Out," her melancholy mood can be affecting. But much of the rest is dreadfully muddy, lacking in both substance and texture. Even "I Think I Love You," a Keith Tenniswood production throbbing with possibility, is reduced to guileless synth pop by Allison's chalky vocals. On "Substance," she dryly intones the mantra "In need of some substance" over and over again. If only she didn't mean it. AMG 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. --

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