Northern California quintet Soft Science returns with “Sand”, their fifth album, due out on Shelflife Records (US) and Spinout Nuggets (UK). Building on the band’s signature blend of dream pop, post-punk, and darkwave, “Sand” feels both intimate and expansive—an album rooted in melody, atmosphere, and emotional depth. Across ten songs, the band balances its established sound with a renewed sense of movement and urgency, creating a record that is immersive, dynamic, and unmistakably Soft Science. Lyrically, “Sand” explores impermanence—how love, memory, and identity shift under pressure—and what it means to keep choosing connection in a world with no guarantees.
Soft Science is comprised of longtime collaborators Katie Haley (lead vocals and percussion), brothers Matt (lead guitar) and Ross Levine (guitar and backing vocals), partners Tony Cale (drums) and Becky Cale (bass and backing vocals), and Hans Munz (atmospheric electronics). With ethereal vocals, twin 12-string guitars, bass, drums, and synthesizers, the band layers luminous melodies, celestial harmonies, and propulsive rhythms into lush, transportive songs. As KEXP has showcased and critics have noted, Soft Science pairs a bright melodic sensibility with a melancholy undertow, creating music that is both immediate and deeply atmospheric.
Earlier Soft Science releases include the LPs “Lines” (2023), Maps (2018), “Detour” (2013), and “Highs and Lows” (2011), along with singles including a split 7” with The Luxembourg Signal (2015), and covers of The House of Love’s ‘I Don’t Know Why I Love You’ and Northern Picture Library’s ‘Paris’ (both 2018). The band’s recordings have earned critical acclaim and led to performances at New York Popfest, Paris Popfest, and The Big Takeover’s 35th Anniversary show, sessions with WFMU, KEXP, and Part-Time Punks, and festivals across the U.S. and the Iberian Peninsula. More recently, the band appeared at Shellraiser and Tremolo Fest in 2024, followed by Dreamgaze PDX in 2025.
With “Sand”, Soft Science continues its sonic evolution, pushing deeper into the noisier edges of dream pop while retaining the band’s gift for hooks, texture, and emotional resonance. As Dagger ‘Zine wrote of the band’s recent work, “Pop hooks bump up against heaving waves of sonic swirl and it all shimmers and shines in all the right places,” a fitting description of a group that keeps expanding its sound without losing its melodic core.
Soft Science’s track “Spinning” from their LP “Sand”.
releases September 4th, 2026
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