The Home Team Unveil Highly-Anticipated New Album, The Crucible Of Life and Share New Single "Love & Co."
On this third album, the Seattle-based quartet continue to hone their trademark heavy pop sound, which feels like a step up from 2021’s Slow Boom. No matter how they continue to develop their own brand of genre-melding music, they keep in touch with their heavy roots.
There’s vibrancy and life at every corner, with colorful horn sections, hip-snaking slap bass, and seductive R&B whispers, all decorated with distorted, crunchy guitar. Love & Co. packages all these best bits in one, and recruits a massive guitar solo from Intervals.
“”Love & Co.” represents the process of making TCOL better than any other song: it went through multiple phases and revisions, and it’s written about one of the toughest moments in our lives - our headlining tour in spring of 2023. It also got such a huge glow up when one of our all time favorite musicians Aaron Marshall agreed to feature on it! Needless to say, a lot of work has gone into this song, and it’s a great song to highlight for this release.” - Brian Butcher, lead vocalist.
The Home Team have something big to prove with this new release. 'The Crucible Of Life' does exactly that, and it does so with such confidence and charm that it’s difficult not to grin while listening to it.
"This album is aptly named after how it felt to create it. Before Slow Bloom, it had been such a grind for us to get to that point that we felt as though the world was hardening us, only to realize that once we were able to make music our career and meet our goals, that intensity basically just doubled. We no longer had the luxury of being at home nearly as much, and there was a lot more pressure on making sure that this album lived up to Slow Bloom. We do however totally feel like we’ve come out the other side so much more unified in what we’re looking for a stronger for it."- Brian Butcher, lead vocalist.
The Home Team remain some of the sharpest hook writers in the newer wave of pop punk/pop rock bands, and it’s easy to imagine songs from this album taking their popularity to new heights. One can only hope they continue to expand upon the most interesting and creative parts of their sound with whatever they release next.