Exactly As It Seems

London six-piece Home Counties release their much anticipated debut album Exactly As It Seems via Submarine Cat Records. 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". Home Counties have consistently retained an distinct element of unpredictability across their releases, and whilst new single "Wild Guess" opens with one of the band's most 'traditional' introductions, the song quickly escalates into familiar unbridled, joyous bedlam.

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. “We just appreciate something if it’s a banger rather than having to put a criteria on it,” says Conor.

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 – always managing to balance the duality of lyrical frankness and musical buoyancy with gusto.

Released: May 2024
Cat: 12SUBC128M
Label: Submarine Cat

Listen

Tracklist

1. Uptight
2. Bethnal Green
3. Funk U Up
4. Dividing Lines
5. Push Comes To Shove
6. Wild Guess
7. You Break It, You Bought It
8. Cradle, Coffin
9. Exactly As It Seems
10. Posthumous Spreadsheets