London six-piece Home Counties have shared their new single and anti-clubbing anthem, ‘Uptight,’ the latest taster of the band’s highly anticipated debut album ‘Exactly As It Seems’, out on 3rd May 2024 via Submarine Cat Records. The song was just unveiled by Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music and Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1, with the latter describing ‘Uptight‘ as “a post-punk mirror maze of electronics”.
New single and album opener ‘Uptight ‘finds the band pondering their own experiences of clubbing in their mid-twenties. Playing out to a backdrop of agitated indie-disco; driven by a dynamic, danceable beat and equipped with the band’s signature angular dual-guitar work of Conor Kearney and Will Harrison, ‘Uptight‘ is an apt pace (and tone) setter for album ‘Exactly As It Seems’, with Harrison encapsulating his emotions in the song’s opening address: ”…there’s a long queue – only going cos I felt I should do / Have I grown cold – seven quid a pint yeah that’s a rip off / God I feel old, twenty four – complaining it’s a shithole”.
Vocalist/guitarist Will Harrison said: ‘Uptight’ is our answer to a 00’s club banger, complete with the crudest synth tones and Britney-esque ad-libs. In contrast to your typical ‘dance-all-night-long’ mantra of 00s pop songs, ‘Uptight’ is about not wanting to go clubbing anymore.“
“The lyrics largely moan about the petty annoyances you voice on a night out, like the extortionate price of pints or queuing for ages to get into a dive bar. It also discusses the worry that everyone thinks you’re boring, or that you’ve grown old too quickly, and how this feeds the cycle of repeatedly going out to places you hate. Saying that, I also see the song as a celebration of these shit places – of saying ‘fuck it, I’ll come out’ and ignoring the grumpy old man tendencies you have prematurely developed.”
With previous EP In A Middle English Town propelling their live set into full-on hedonistic party territory, the addition of new vocalist Lois Kelly in late 2022 completed their transformation, with the band fully embracing the power of a good time.
“We just love songs that are dancy and we want our gigs to be fun. On our last tour we were finally at a stage where we had enough new material, on top of the last EP, where every song basically felt like a dance song: that’s the music we like to listen to and the shows we want to go to. I don’t really consider us a guitar outfit anymore. We want to be a more melodic band, with pop tunes and catchy songs,” said Will.
With an eye for the day-to-day, all-too-relatable details of crap modern living, coupled with an ear for hook-filled, grin-inducing melody, the pay-off is one riddled in joy rather than despair. Or, as Conor succinctly sums up the current ethos of the band: “My life is ruined cos I can’t afford rent, but I’m gonna dance about it.”
To celebrate the release of their upcoming album they will be embarking on a tour across the UK uk May concluding with their biggest headline to date at Oslo Hackney on the 22nd May.
For more details follow Home Counties:
Instagram: @homecountiesband
Twitter: @home_counties_
Facebook: /homecountiesmusic
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