20 years after their classic debut ‘With Love and Squalor’, We Are Scientists are set to release their ninth album ‘Qualifying Miles’ on 18 July, 2025. With themes of ‘nostalgia, loss and the bittersweet ache of the past’ and inspiration from ’90s guitar rock bands, the record finds the duo in introspective and reflective mood.

‘A Prelude to What’ opens the record with jagged guitar hooks and choral harmonies as Keith Murray and Chris Cain beg with someone to ‘tell the truth’ and ‘make your move’. The emotions on display reminded us of seeing the band finish a set with a cover of the Boyz II Men classic ‘End of the Road’ almost two decades ago – and we mean that as a compliment. ‘Starry Eyed’ follows with ramblings about being consistently misunderstood and a sense of lust: ‘I’m starry eyed whenever we’re together’.

‘Dead Letters’ has a folk-rock edge with its genteel guitar and handclaps, although these again swirl around some words of heartbreak: ‘I’m waking up expecting calls and wondering if you ever left at all’. Lead single ‘Please Don’t Say It’ is a big, bombastic anthem with a singalong chorus as the band plead with a loved one not to say something that would cause pain. ‘What You Want is Gone’ is once again melancholic with a sound reminiscent of The Airborne Toxic Event’s early material and warnings of preparing for the inevitable. There’s also a perfectly pitched BIG guitar solo.

‘A Lesson I Never Learned’ finds Keith trying to learn from past mistakes, no matter how painful it is – and it’s delivered with a powerful falsetto: ‘For once, can I be present now?’ ‘I Already Hate This’ captures the feelings of every elder Millennial – we don’t know what we want but after an adulthood of being shat upon, we know we’re going to hate it – with thoughts on catastrophising every single possibility.

The penultimate ‘The Mall in My Dreams’ finds the band back in very familiar territory as they once again embrace their Guided by Voices influence. It’s a raw song that finds them demanding someone ‘Don’t change for anyone’. The album draws to a close with the 3-minute dreamy pop of ‘Promise Me’.

Two decades in and with ‘Qualifying Miles’, We Are Scientists once again prove they’re a band that can go the distance.