Home Counties take a “Wild Guess” on their next move

Brit-Pop

Following the band’s two acclaimed EPs “Redevelopment” and “In A Middle English Town”, the new album arrives on the heels of two sold-out secret London shows and the album’s vibrant first taste “Bethnal Green”. Their sound is very retro, early 80’s with a splash of 90’s Brit Pop in there, but only if you listen hard enough! Home Counties – Will Harrison, Lois Kelly, Conor Kearney, Dan Hearn, Barn Peiser Pepin and Bill Griffin – have consistently retained an distinct element of unpredictability across their releases, and “Wild Guess” opens with one of the band’s most ‘traditional’ introductions, it song quickly escalates into familiar unbridled, joyous bedlam.

Prioritising the beauty in the ordinary and unanimously leaning into a fun, exploratory way of thinking, “Exactly As It Seems” presents a notable sonic shift for Home Counties, embracing a more dance-orientated sensibility and an ambitious inventive attention to detail, all with a focus on melody in its purest form. With last year’s “In A Middle English Town” EP propelling their live set into full-on hedonistic party territory, the addition of new vocalist Kelly in late 2022 completed their transformation.

On the Home Counties stereo when it came to finalising their debut album, a list of favourites as varied as they come were given air time: jungle (the genre, not the band), Talking Heads, Britney Spears, The Slits. At the centre of it all is nothing except simple quality. Thematically, meanwhile, the band have been traversing the ups and downs of London life, documenting their findings as they barrel towards the second half of their twenties and all that that entails. Laments on renting and how rubbish landlords are and how unaffordable it is, the feeling of getting older, turning 25 and not wanting to go clubbing and feeling guilty about that.

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