The Home Team "Love & Co." and 'The Crucible of Life" Review

Since late fall of last year, The Home Team has been dropping singles to tease their new album, ‘The Crucible Of Life.” And each one I’ve gotten increasingly excited for the album, but also their Summer School Tour along side 5 other bands. The latest single to accompany their album release is “Love & Co.,” given that the singles so far have been notably heavier than their previous work, I’m looking forward to seeing how this song lines up with some already incredibly great songs from the album.

Starting out, The Home Team gets you hooked immediately with the use of Brian Butcher’s stunning vocals on a high note. And they keep you hooked through incredible use of a groovy theme along side lyrics that, per usual, have you dancing and or singing along. With clever use of talking throughout this song, and album, it becomes engaging and something new. Accompany that with an incredibly fitting guitar solo, this song will fits so well along side the other singles they’ve released for this album. I can’t not mention the use of brass in this song either- it’s nothing new for The Home Team, but it adds another layer to the song that I love. This is definitely a more upbeat song compared to their other singles, but with a line of “Do What You Love, It’s Easy,” this song has you moving in your seat if it’s the first or fifth time you’re listening. 

With “Love & Co.” being their final single, it also becomes the 7th single of the 12 song album. Having already loved half of the album before its release should be a good sign, but there’s always a chance the other songs are of a different vein or don’t match the vibe. I am ecstatic and relieved to say that is not the case. The whole album is one complete theme and all songs blend beautifully with each other. I had the pleasure of listening to this for the first time on vinyl and found a lot of joy in the fact that the songs truly did blend so well with each other. While each song is its own unique work The Home Team really embraced this heavier side and went all in on it. 

While the majority of this album retains their heavy-pop speed, they did slow down the tempo a bit with “Somebody Else’s Face” and “Walk this World With Me” but both of those songs still align so well with the rest of the album. Whether intentional or not, The Home Team released almost every other song on this album as singles, so if you’re going for a full play through you’ll get to enjoy, single along, enjoy, sing along, and repeat. The Home Team noted a while ago that this album was going to be “the grooviest stuff we’ve ever written” and they were not joking around. To no one’s surprise, I was absolutely in love with this album from the very first listen through. 

This album, as a whole, feels like a massive move for the band. While being known as a “heavy-pop” band, this album absolutely leans more heavy that their previous albums have but keeps their upbeat and insanely catchy tone they’ve had in previous albums. It seems like a full album of them embracing all aspects of them as a band and pushing the envelope. I’ll absolutely be playing this album on repeat before and after I see them on their Summer School Tour. If you can, I highly encourage you to grab tickets to see them- either along side 5 other bands on their Summer School tour, going on now, or along side Neck Deep Later this year!