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The Home Team’s personality shines through the album as they conquer into new territories, maybe only slightly walked by Issues, with their genre blending tracks. You can hear the heavy R&B, pop, punk, and jazz influences sprinkled throughout the 12-track album, transcending the need to stick to one genre. The Home Team/Thriller Records released 6 of the 12-album tracks before The Crucible Of Life was released, so let’s focus on the new tracks first.
The Home Team knock it out of the park from the get-go with Turn You Off. The verbal rhapsody of “Oh no, here we go again.” yes, we do but it’s not an “oh no”, it’s an “oh yes”. Each member showcases their talent in the song with its jazzy invasion of flair. Then, out of nowhere just before the 2-minute mark, it shifts! It’s stripped back to a funky drum beat then Brian swiftly comes in with echoes of “If you know best, if you know best, if you know best…”.
And the bass switch up is so enticing with a dazzle of synth keyboard over “… but now I’m crumbling down at the weight in the crucible of life.” It’s such a pleasure to the ears. “And here at the end of everything, I can feel my skin begin to harden and my gut screams at me that I was right all along.” If anything, this track does the opposite of turning me off (naughty). This is a repeater.
Love & Co (ft. Intervals) is heavier on the jazz and funk elements and that vibrant guitar solo will get you air playing, for those like me who can’t play in instrument, I sure wish I could just to imitate that solo. The track has an upbeat vitality “Do what you love, it’s easy.” I would love to see this performed with a jazz orchestra as this has the potential to be bigger!
Love & Co (ft. Intervals) is heavier on the jazz and funk elements and that vibrant guitar solo will get you air playing, for those like me who can’t play in instrument, I sure wish I could just to imitate that solo. The track has an upbeat vitality “Do what you love, it’s easy.” I would love to see this performed with a jazz orchestra as this has the potential to be bigger!
Honest oddly elicits a bit of emotion considering it’s a shorter track but isn’t that the point of music? You’ve got to feel something. “Are you starting to forget the past, don’t keep looking back.” I do wish this one was longer, but that’s probably just me being greedy (I want more!).
Somebody Else’s Face (ft. Broadside) diverts from the signature style initially as it feels a bit more angstier, but then quickly kicks back in to familiar territories. “Tell me you won’t throw it away, to see somebody else’s face.” Followed by the edgier “I don’t think I can help you.” Broadsides vocals slip into the song smoothly and adds an elevated layer, especially when there are echoes in the bridge which makes you want to re-play the song ending on that perfect bass line.
All Squeezed Out is again, another opener which diverts expectations as I imagine this being in a black and white movie. This is all squeezed out before it’s began at a short 1-minute-long song. There’s a kind of role play going on between Brian and the female vocal with Brian initially telling her “I'd be livid if you left without a proper goodbye.” She rebuttals “Then one morning you wake up, the guy’s gone, the saxophones gone, all that’s left behind is a pair of old socks a tube of toothpaste all squeezed out.” It’s a funky track with kind of sad undertones of his fear coming to fruition
Oh, what a funky pop punk tune Love When You’re Used is with a catchy chorus which will get your head bobbing and feet tapping "Toxic, not sick. All your emotions never lost that magic." Another cohesive and enticing track which you can feel a lot of thought and energy went into creating.
Moving onto the pre-released singles, firstly we have Brag. Brian has openly expressed that it’s taken a while for him to get to the point of no longer doubting himself and when he did start to believe in himself, he felt like he was beginning to be arrogant. The sarcastic lyrics emphasis what it would be like to have that level of ego “I got the recipe so try to copy me” and “Cause I don’t mean to brag, come and catch me if you can.”
The Home Team switches it up with the only ballad of the album in Walk This World With Me (WTWWM). Brian confessed that this song is his favourite song he’s ever made, and a lot of time was taken on the instrumentation to ensure it still had The Home Teams’ flare. WTWWM is a personal and emotive song that will make you feel like you’re cutting onions as Brian expresses the need for his partner to be alongside him whilst on this journey “…I know it’s cold, but I need you here to see this open road, so I can feel complete.”
Roommates/Overtime collectively known as Rovertime, these two songs have consecutively been on repeat and are what personally dragged me into discovering The Home Team. The ever so catchy “Losing my patience with you, like you’ve got nothing to lose. I’m obsessed with the things that you do.” in Roommates and “All I’ve ever needed it more time, to bring everything around you to life.” in Overtime. I don’t know what the magic formula is for catchy lyrics, but they’ve cracked that code. Hell is a shorter song which showcases yet again the pure talent from all the members especially the insane guitar from John and bass driven groove from Ryne. The distorted lyrics of "Hell, how?" and “So superstitious that, you can’t swallow up the fact that I’ll still see you in hell.”
Mm there’s about a 66% chance that Loud shouldn’t be an album closer (see what I did there?) which actually is a really fitting percentage. I do like its raunchy lyrics of "Cause I love when you get down, Cause shit gets crazy when you make that sound."
A lot of passion was put into creating the no-skip album whilst still being authentic to themselves and their unique sound. Arguably on the 12-track album, almost each one could have been a title track, which is a hard achievement to accomplish. Although I feel they’ve topped Slow Bloom, I can see that some listeners may feel the songs are quite “samey” some of the tracks are shorter than average albeit, it is a polished, vibrant album and for me personally, potentially the album of the year.
Somebody Else’s Face (ft. Broadside) diverts from the signature style initially as it feels a bit more angstier, but then quickly kicks back in to familiar territories. “Tell me you won’t throw it away, to see somebody else’s face.” Followed by the edgier “I don’t think I can help you.” Broadsides vocals slip into the song smoothly and adds an elevated layer, especially when there are echoes in the bridge which makes you want to re-play the song ending on that perfect bass line.
All Squeezed Out is again, another opener which diverts expectations as I imagine this being in a black and white movie. This is all squeezed out before it’s began at a short 1-minute-long song. There’s a kind of role play going on between Brian and the female vocal with Brian initially telling her “I'd be livid if you left without a proper goodbye.” She rebuttals “Then one morning you wake up, the guy’s gone, the saxophones gone, all that’s left behind is a pair of old socks a tube of toothpaste all squeezed out.” It’s a funky track with kind of sad undertones of his fear coming to fruition
Oh, what a funky pop punk tune Love When You’re Used is with a catchy chorus which will get your head bobbing and feet tapping "Toxic, not sick. All your emotions never lost that magic." Another cohesive and enticing track which you can feel a lot of thought and energy went into creating.
Moving onto the pre-released singles, firstly we have Brag. Brian has openly expressed that it’s taken a while for him to get to the point of no longer doubting himself and when he did start to believe in himself, he felt like he was beginning to be arrogant. The sarcastic lyrics emphasis what it would be like to have that level of ego “I got the recipe so try to copy me” and “Cause I don’t mean to brag, come and catch me if you can.”
The Home Team switches it up with the only ballad of the album in Walk This World With Me (WTWWM). Brian confessed that this song is his favourite song he’s ever made, and a lot of time was taken on the instrumentation to ensure it still had The Home Teams’ flare. WTWWM is a personal and emotive song that will make you feel like you’re cutting onions as Brian expresses the need for his partner to be alongside him whilst on this journey “…I know it’s cold, but I need you here to see this open road, so I can feel complete.”
Roommates/Overtime collectively known as Rovertime, these two songs have consecutively been on repeat and are what personally dragged me into discovering The Home Team. The ever so catchy “Losing my patience with you, like you’ve got nothing to lose. I’m obsessed with the things that you do.” in Roommates and “All I’ve ever needed it more time, to bring everything around you to life.” in Overtime. I don’t know what the magic formula is for catchy lyrics, but they’ve cracked that code. Hell is a shorter song which showcases yet again the pure talent from all the members especially the insane guitar from John and bass driven groove from Ryne. The distorted lyrics of "Hell, how?" and “So superstitious that, you can’t swallow up the fact that I’ll still see you in hell.”
Mm there’s about a 66% chance that Loud shouldn’t be an album closer (see what I did there?) which actually is a really fitting percentage. I do like its raunchy lyrics of "Cause I love when you get down, Cause shit gets crazy when you make that sound."
A lot of passion was put into creating the no-skip album whilst still being authentic to themselves and their unique sound. Arguably on the 12-track album, almost each one could have been a title track, which is a hard achievement to accomplish. Although I feel they’ve topped Slow Bloom, I can see that some listeners may feel the songs are quite “samey” some of the tracks are shorter than average albeit, it is a polished, vibrant album and for me personally, potentially the album of the year.
The music videos are a complimentary addition to the music, shout out to the animation in Hell, the jokes in Loud and the visual effects in WTWWM that really tugs at your heart strings. John phrased it well himself “You either become hardened or crack in The Crucible Of Life – and in this case it hardened us.” The Home Team are already getting ahead in the studio on their next album just as their tour kicks off. What another home run for The Home Team, so, let’s get Loud and Brag about The Crucible Of Life because it turns me on! 10/10
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