Home MusicWE ARE SCIENTISTS Trade Party Vibes for Power Ballad Perfection on “I Could Do Much Worse”
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WE ARE SCIENTISTS Trade Party Vibes for Power Ballad Perfection on “I Could Do Much Worse”

by Rey Roldan
written by Rey Roldan 0 comments
Today, Brooklyn’s indie rock favorites We Are Scientists – comprising founding members Keith Murray and Chris Cain – unveil “I Could Do Much Worse,” the second single from their forthcoming album Qualifying Miles. A melancholic power ballad, the track begins with shimmering, propulsive guitar work that crescendos into an anthemic chorus and soaring solo. The release marks a rare moment where the band leans fully into a minor-key ballad. Lyrically it explores the lingering weight of life’s missteps and the power of emotional reckoning.

Speaking on the track, Keith offers:
“Remember when rock bands made all their money and bought all of their houses and helicopters and ski-doos off the back of their smash-hit power ballads? Our public-facing band persona is so founded in high-energy party vibes that we’re never really given the stylistic leeway to publicly lean into our own power ballads. We’ve always been writing them – I’d argue there’s at least one PB on every last We Are Scientists record, and we in the band always vote that they ought to be singles. It’s nice to finally be giving one of their ilk a little time in the spotlight to tan its wan little face.

While I was writing ‘I Could Do Much Worse,’ I initially thought it was a morose number. It’s mid-tempo, minor key, kinda emo. The longer I’ve lived with it, though, the more I’m learning that the swelling emotion that drives it is a sort of epistemic wave – you can surf it, or just kinda get tossed underneath it and end up with a face full of coral and shrimp.

I guess I originally read ‘I Could Do Much Worse’ as a lament, but sometimes when you look back on mistakes that you’ve made, you clock how much you’ve actually learned from those foibles and come to realize that sometimes the most egregious of errors can be the greatest of skeleton keys. You know what they say: you can’t make an omelet without getting egg all over your face.” 

“I Could Do Much Worse”
Listen/share: https://wearescientists.lnk.to/PHVWA7
“I Could Do Much Worse” follows previous single “Please Don’t Say It,” which was premiered on BBC Radio 2 by Edith Bowman, and was praised by Clash, Dork, The Line Of Best Fit and many more.

Qualifying Miles is a return to the music that shaped the band’s childhoods, with echoes of ‘90s guitar music threading throughout the project. With their trademark danceable, razor-sharp hooks and witty lyricism, the record is the sound of a band revisiting their roots while interrogating the distance they have traveled. It follows two previous self-produced albums Huffy (2021) and Lobes (2023), which were beloved by fans and critics alike for their ambitious experimentation with studio production and expanded sonic palettes. A sharp, reflective ninth studio album that trades studio maximalism for raw immediacy, Qualifying Miles explores themes of loss, memory, and the half-haunting pull of the past. And that’s what makes the record so compelling: it feels instinctive, unfiltered, and human – the kind of record only a band this experienced and self-aware could make.
QUALIFYING MILES
Tracklisting
1. A Prelude to What
2. Starry-Eyed
3. Dead Letters
4. The Big One
5. Please Don’t Say It
6. The Same Mistake
7. What You Want Is Gone
8. A Lesson I Never Learned
9. I Could Do Much Worse
10. I Already Hate This
11. The Mall in My Dreams
12. Promise Me
Rey Roldan
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