Prioritising the beauty in the ordinary and unanimously leaning into a fun, exploratory way of thinking, debut album 'Exactly As It Seems' presents a notable sonic shift for Home Counties, embracing a more dance-orientated sensibility and an ambitious inventive attention to detail, all with a focus on melody in its purest form. With last year's 'In A Middle English Town' EP 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 dance-y 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. 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. 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."