Home Counties pay homage to London's flat roof pubs on new single. New album 'Humdrum' out 24th Oct on Submarine Cat, prod by Al Doyle (Hot Chip)

London sextet Home Counties today unveil new single 'Meet Me In The Flat Roof', a tongue-in-cheek homage to London's flat roof pubs - the latest preview of the band's eagerly awaited second album 'Humdrum', out 24th October via Submarine Cat Records - produced by Al Doyle (of Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem). The band have also announced a new in-store tour to celebrate the release of the album, with stops in Liverpool, Oxford, Kingston, Southsea and Southampton.

Both love letter and self-critique, new single 'Meet Me In The Flat Roof' calls out the smugness of bragging about “authentic” haunts while inevitably fuelling their gentrification. With lines that swing from knowing humour (“Can’t believe you’ve not been here before / Your friend’s been? I bet I’ve been way more”) to surprising tenderness (“Red wine on the crimson carpet / Accidental but unnoticed and it feels like love”), the track captures the cultural superiority complex hidden inside taste and habit.

Musically, it’s one of the album's most lush and memorable moments. Dreamy guitars and stacked harmonies bloom into a soaring middle eight - a section Doyle pushed the band to write after what had originally been an instrumental gap. The result is a song that turns the resolutely mundane into one of the album’s most unexpectedly moving highlights.

Speaking on the song, singer Will Harrison said:

“On one level it’s pub appreciation, a love letter (of sorts) - but one I hope conveys some self-awareness of how insufferable it makes me sound. It’s about that tendency to brag about going to ‘authentic’ places whilst simultaneously contributing to their gentrification at the same time. The joke’s on us as much as anything."

At its core, Home Counties' second full length 'Humdrum' is an album about communication. Across its 10 tracks, it captures the unease of saying too much or not enough, the quiet resentment of being out-charmed, and the spiral of overthinking. Told through the dual voices and perspectives of lead vocalists Will Harrison and Lois Kelly, 'Humdrum' trades in wiry grooves, synths that lurch between menace and euphoria, and razor-sharp pop instincts - wrapping knotty ideas into songs that feel both meticulously constructed and joyfully unhinged.

While their widely acclaimed debut 'Exactly As It Seems' leaned into bright eccentricities, 'Humdrum' marks a sharper, more explosive turn - a natural progression for a band who’ve become one of the UK’s most exhilarating live acts. Produced by Al Doyle (LCD Soundsystem / Hot Chip), the album carries forward LCD’s lineage of groove-driven intensity and sardonic wit, refracted through a distinctly British lens.

If Yard Act and Bodega channel that lineage into post-punk bite, Home Counties push it somewhere poppier, splicing wiry art-rock energy with unexpectedly toplines from Will and Lois - sometimes as sweet and immediate as a 90s chart pop hook. It’s that tension between the sardonic and the melodic, the dancefloor and the deadpan, that makes 'Humdrum' feel uniquely Home Counties.

On working with Al Doyle, the band went on to say:

"We spent two weeks in Al's studio just off Brick Lane and had such a good time. We made full use of his incredible collection of vintage analogue synths. Al has a great instinct for pulling things back when needed to better serve the songs, and his input on arrangements really helped the tracks build in a more dynamic way.

"For this new album, we gave ourselves time to experiment and to refine sounds in a way we had never done on previous releases. It also led to a more collaborative approach in the studio, with us performing collectively on the same synthesiser to capture more human performances from electronic instruments."

2024 saw the release of Home Counties' critically acclaimed debut album 'Exactly As It Seems' earning rave reviews from CLASH, The Skinny, Dork, DIY, The Line of Best Fit and more; a sync on the EA Sports FC 25 soundtrack, and sold-out headline shows across the UK, including 3 in London at the 100 Club, Oslo Hackney and Omeara.

Home Counties' new album 'Humdrum' is out 24th October on Submarine Cat Records - available for pre-order here. New single 'Meet Me In The Flat Roof' is out now. Tickets for Home Counties' winter headline tour, culminating in London's Scala on 2nd December, are on sale here.

LIVE DATES

OCTOBER

04 - Night Currents, Portsmouth

11 - Shiny New Model, Cambridge

17 - Wild Paths, Norwich

26 - Jacaranda, Liverpool (In-store)

27 - Truck, Oxford (In-store)

28 - Banquet, Kingston (In-store)

29 - Pie & Vinyl, Southsea (In-store)

29 - Vinilo, Southampton (In-store)

NOVEMBER

22 - Rough Trade, Bristol

23 - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

24 - Green Door Store, Brighton

27 - Bodega, Nottingham

28 - Flying Duck, Glasgow

29 - Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds

30 - YES Pink Room, Manchester

DECEMBER

01 - Hallamshire Hotel, Sheffield

02 - Scala, London