After the addition of a new member, upgrading Home Counties from a 5-piece to a 6-piece, the band has truly found their sound and developed it perfectly to cover and tackle many problems in a war against the mundane. Matthew Rowe explains all.

Formerly Buckinghamshire-based band Home Counties have been on the scene for a while, but have unfortunately stayed under my radar until recently. Whilst I was shuffling on Spotify, I was lucky enough to hear one of their earlier songs, Back to the 70s, which instantly struck me. In their earlier days, they adopted a much more post-punk central sound while attempting to maintain upbeat instrumental tracks to accompany them. This was a nice change to the genre’s status quo, especially as it appeases my love for funk and post-punk, forming the new genre of post-funk.

Before making their debut album, Home Counties picked up pianist and
second vocalist Lois Kelly, who I believe was the key to fully fleshing out their songs. The combination of Kelly, as well as already established
vocalist Will Harrison, is executed to perfection, with both voices able
to deliver loud, cutting lines as well as much more melodic background vocals
that work in harmony with one another. The introduction of Kelly also changed
the band’s sound, tackling their funky, disco-inspired instrumentals head-on.
This leads to a set of much stronger-sounding tracks and keeps a consistent
theme that varies just enough to avoid too many repetitive singles.

Picking up a second vocalist was the best thing Home Counties could have done

Home Counties have managed to stay completely balanced on a scale from having either the instrumentals or the vocals drowning out the other, both in their mixing but also in the musical intricacy and the importance of the lyrics. One great example of this is Cradle, Coffin, which boasts a very punchy 4/4 beat, but the band alongside both Harrison’s and Kelly’s lyrics work perfectly, allowing enough focus to lay off the beat while they get their point across to us. This balance allows for a particularly enjoyable listening experience. I have found that it’s great background music if you are working, but also a great album to sit down and listen to in its entirety.

A lot of hard-hitting and relatable themes are explored in this project.
This was inspired by the band moving to the big city of London from their
previously calm, out-of-city lives, which is a big change for anyone. The first
single from this album to be released was Bethnal Green, a song tackling the topic of gentrification and how it can lead to the feeling of not belonging to where you came from. “Just say you don’t contest me, just say you won’t forget me” is a particularly poignant example of the two. Another song, You Break It, You Bought It directly attacks the general public’s, and specifically my least favourite kind of collector, landlords (M3 Lettings and Fit Property; if you are reading this, I do not like you). This track nails it when it comes to the state of renting as well as providing a brilliant, funky instrumental including my favourite bassline on the project from Bill Griffin. The vocals provide both an insight as to how predatory these companies are as well as their rather personal thoughts, “Lynching landlords in my dreams” being rather extreme, but getting the point across.

In some of their songs, they have also adapted a newer, more electronic style of music, my favourite example being the title track, Exactly As It Seems. This kicks off with an instrumental that is akin to the intro music to ITV’s The Job Lot. This results in an 8-bit-sounding backing track, which you wouldn’t think would work, yet it does almost seamlessly with the dynamic duo of vocalists I have grown to love over this album. This is also apparent in Funk U Up, which boasts a very impressive electronic keyboard track straight out of a futuristic soundscape to accompany a song about constantly falling behind and messing up.

One thing Home Counties does to a very high standard is build songs up to a huge crescendo, often releasing the anger built up throughout the song in a blaze of funk glory. This is done best in Wild Guess, which is the single that made me most excited for the album. This starts nice and slowly but builds up from stripped-back instrumentals, setting a calm tone for most of the song while solemnly putting across a message about the cost of living crisis before hitting the final chorus, which elevates the instrumental into a catchy, ride cymbal driven melody composed of all the previous parts.

As well as developing their general sound, they have done an incredible job of developing their structuring and variety

Their final track in this album puts together all of these factors of individual greatness in previous tracks into one brilliant finale, Posthumous Spreadsheets. It starts off with a very Beatles-esque Come Together inspired drum track and much like Wild Guess, continues on relatively calmly at the beginning, demonstrating their ability to deliver strong monologues above an electronic beat, before kicking in halfway through. This song wraps up the themes covered elegantly, with the final song being about how awful the pressures and stress of a modern office is through a combination of satire and much more serious lyrics about how difficult it is to enjoy yourself whilst working at the bottom.

To summarise this project, I was blown away both during the release of the singles and the grand release of the album. They have blended two of my favourite genres perfectly and have given me a new view of what post-punk truly means. Home Counties are a very underrated band, and I hope they gain more traction soon, so if you’re reading this, please go and listen to them.