ALBUM REVIEW: Home Counties - Humdrum

Home Counties want you to dance with discomfort.Their new album, ‘Humdrum’, is full of twitchy, body-shaking songs about the world-weary disillusion of Britain’s young. And who can blame them? It’s an absolute shitshow out there. Powerless in the face of increasing social division, media gaslighting and persistent government fuck-upery, Home Counties, like many, have concluded that you might as well be dancing, if only to feel something other than dread.

Photo Credit: Luca Bailey

The songs do a phenomenal job of surprising you whilst being grounded in their own twisted logic. Take ‘Spain’, which punctuates its message with sinister sliding synths, giving way to infectious disco beats and closing out on a fantastic rap vocal switch-up.

‘New Best Thing’ is a brilliant single, which game changingly rhymes ‘sliced bread’ and ‘street cred’. Tongue-in-cheek touches like these are present throughout the record’s lyrics. For example, using topical slang such as ‘I knew my chances were cooked’ in the title track ‘Humdrum’. Time will tell how these phrases will date the music, but for now, they’re straight bussin, on God.

‘When In Rome’ channels the production audacity of Jockstrap, paired with pointy guitars tones. Disco and indietronica fuse together in a splendid high-energy burst. Being fed up is the lyrical spine of Humdrum, but the torso, legs and arms of this beastly record flail and move with reckless, joyous abandon.

Never is this more apparent than on ‘Like That’, a tightly drawn track combining acoustic guitar with electro-trash ecstasy akin to La Roux. Home Counties muse: “If nothing’s built to last then what’s the fucking point” before drums crash in, vocals shout, and our journey comes to an electrifying close.

‘Humdrum’ is a magnetic record. Agitated, groovy, and unpredictable without being incomprehensible. It is a welcome spotlight on the sombre state of Britain’s future - carrying on, but not exactly keeping calm.