Home Counties - Exactly As It Seems

In an age where the sheer breadth of buzzy new bands is at an all-time high, standing out from the pack can be a tricky one. When Home Counties first splashed into view with sharp-punk licks and scorching spoken-word hooks it saw them competing for the spotlight with a sea of other voices. Evolved, bigger and reborn - the Home Counties of now are an entirely different beast, with 'Exactly As It Seems' the ultimate feast of dancefloor bangers. It marks them out as a band finding their boldest voice while refusing to confine themselves to the expected.

At its core, 'Exactly As It Seems' is an album bursting with a character and attitude that everything else glues to. Making the everyday feel like gripping TV megashows, it places the feeling of release and joy at the heart of everything. The whipping 'Bethnal Green', hypnotic 'Uptight' and hip-thrusting 'Funk U Up' are immediate, while 'Push Comes To Shove' and the at-one-moment-salsa-vide-game-loading-screen-the-next-scatty-beat-breakdown of 'Wild Guess' are as unexpected as they are hooking from the first note.

A record that sees Home Counties firmly finding their sound, odes to life surviving in a city in 2024 have never sounded so uplifting - closer 'Posthumous Spreadsheets' the closest moment of poignancy served in stunning fashion like the soundtrack to the end credits of a movie. Indietronic beats and insatiable pop magic akin to LCD Soundsystem or Passion Pit being the order of the day (whether it's the breakdown of 'Cradle, Coffin' or the sleazy clubland of the album's title-track), 'Exactly As It Seems' is a joyous, grin-inducing call to arms that turning life into a dancefloor is guaranteed to make it infinitely better.