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(3rd May) – London via Buckinghamshire six-piece Home Counties today release their much-anticipated debut album 'Exactly As It Seems', out now via Submarine Cat Records. This evening the band will celebrate the album's release with an intimate launch show at Third Man Records' Blue Basement, before embarking on a UK tour later this month. Home Counties have also shared the video for the album's title track & new single "Exactly As It Seems".
Drawing from a broad-ranging pocket of influences: early 2000s pop, the “dopamine overload” of Confidence Man’s live shows, to LCD Soundsystem, The Slits, and the nuanced art-rock of ‘Remain In Light’/’Speaking In Tongues’-era Talking Heads, on debut album ‘Exactly As It Seems’, Home Counties unanimously lean into a fun, exploratory way of thinking.
Released to a wave of critical acclaim, with The Skinny giving the album a perfect 5 star rating describing 'Exactly As It Seems' as "a beautifully peculiar, joy-inducing triumph”, Dork calling the album "a feast of dancefloor-imbued bangers" - 4/5, The Line of Best Fit heralding the band as "some of today’s brightest musical minds" - 8/10, along with further glowing reviews and praise upon release from CLASH Magazine, The Telegraph, Overblown, and many more.
'Exactly As It Seems' features previously released cuts including the synth-laced "Dividing Lines", their sharp-witted address of renting in London "You Break It, You Bought It", "Uptight" - described by BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders as "a post-punk mirror maze of electronics", the "sprightly bossa nova rhythms" [Sunday Times Culture] of "Wild Guess" and their glitchy ode to east London "Bethnal Green".
When disenchantment runs high, when city life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — when you’re forking out seven quid for a pint, shivering in a queue for a club night you don’t really care about, getting ripped off by landlords over blu tac stains, and squeezing in studio sessions around a relentless 9-5 schedule, there is only one logical response: fun.
Produced in its entirety by the band’s guitarist Conor Kearney, the band recorded ‘Exactly As It Seems’ in a small studio in Hackney where they convened every evening after work for months on end, “all six of us crowded in like sardines”, as vocalist and guitarist Will Harrison recalls.
The resulting body of work – mixed by the renowned Andy Savours (Black Country New Road, Róisín Murphy, The Kills) – dutifully captures the band’s rapturous live performances; a fizzing display of eclecticism all with a focus on melody in its purest form. Home Counties have always excelled at poking at life’s mundanities, but this time they supply the humdrum with some enormous pop hooks.
Thematically the album traverses the ups and downs of London life in your late twenties. “The album is about moving to London and the experiences of that,” notes Will. “It’s an album about despair at your current financial prospects, feeling guilty about your role in gentrification, being overwhelmed by consumer choice, and disintegrating friendships.”
Laments on renting and how rubbish landlords are ["You Break It, You Bought It"], turning 25 and not wanting to go clubbing ["Uptight"] and fear of social isolation in old-age ["Wild Guess"] – Home Counties always manage to balance the duality of lyrical frankness and musical buoyancy with gusto.
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Having firmly established themselves as one of the UK's most vital alternative bands with their two acclaimed EPs 'Redevelopment' and 'In A Middle English Town' and double A-side single "Modern Yuppies" / "White Shirt Clean Shirt" - Home Counties have played host to notable sold out headline shows at venues including the 100 Club and The Lexington, as well as embarking on nationwide support tours with Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, FEET, Courting and bdrmm, adding to further appearances alongside shame, Sports Team, Pip Blom and more.
Home Counties have received widespread radio support from Elton John (Apple 1) Jack Saunders, Sian Eleri, Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1), Steve Lamacq, Amy Lame, Tom Robinson, Radcliffe & Maconie (BBC 6 Music) along with key press tips from The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, NME, Loud And Quiet, So Young Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, CLASH Magazine, Rough Trade, Gigwise, The i, Dork Magazine, Wonderland Magazine, 1883 Magazine, Whynow and more.
Home Counties' debut album 'Exactly As It Seems' is out now, released 3rd May via Submarine Cat Records. Home Counties embark on a UK headline tour in support of 'Exactly As It Seems' this May, with further festival appearances confirmed at The Great Escape, Deer Shed, Dot To Dot, FOCUS Wales, Are You Listening, with more yet to be announced.
Home Counties are: Will Harrison (vocals/guitar/keys), Lois Kelly (vocals/keys), Conor Kearney (guitar/vocals), Dan Hearn (drums), Barn Peiser Pepin (synth/percussion/guitar/vocals) and Bill Griffin (bass/vocals).
More Praise for Home Counties
"Fabulous stuff"
Elton John
"A post-punk mirror maze of electronics"
Jack Saunders - BBC Radio 1
"Home Counties almost sound like a cross between Everything Everything, Talking Heads and Yard Act – electronic beats coupled with witty, socially-minded lyrics."
The Telegraph
“Whirring splendidly like the manic mastery of a Devo Sonic-Screwdriver"
So Young Magazine
"Effortlessly cool...an energetic release which traverses indie, dance, and punk"
1883 Magazine
“Ramshackle guitars dance around a series of weird and wonderful noises"
DIY Magazine
"The Elton John-backed six-piece pair black-as-night lyrics with a sprightly bossa nova rhythm, the contrast twisting the knife"
Sunday Times Culture
“Danceable post-punk, agitated guitars, prominent baselines and political lyricism”
Gigwise
"Home Counties perfectly capture a ‘dissatisfied and nihilistic youth"
The Rodeo
"Pair dark irony with synth-infused punk... Home Counties are a band with something to say"
Dork Magazine
"Home Counties are one of the most exciting new bands in the UK scene right now"
Clash Magazine
"Home Counties squirm, writhe and wiggle their way through undulating soundscapes that take in the quirkier aspects of indie, electronica, pop and post-punk"
Northern Transmissions
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