New music review with singles from Home Counties and Ski Team
- Julia Mason aka The Decibel Decoder
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her new music review with singles from Home Counties Better Last Year (Home Counties For Christmas) and Ski Team Santa
Artist: Home Counties
Track: Better Last Year (Home Counties For Christmas)
Home Counties have released a new Christmas single Better Last Year (Home Counties For Christmas). The track was produced by the band’s own Conor Kearney. Alongside the single, Home Counties have been announced as main support to Franz Ferdinand across the band’s UK tour dates next spring. They have also confirmed a special Christmas show at The George Tavern on 17 December, raising funds for Palestine.
Speaking on the release of their new Christmas single, the band shared: "As a band we’ve always gone hard on the Christmas songs, so I think it was only a matter of time before we wrote one ourselves. Since secondary school, when Lois first joined our teenage band to play Fairytale of New York at the Christmas concert, we have performed covers every year at our local village pub on Christmas Eve. It was here (The Red Lion, Longwick) where we played an early iteration of the song a few days after writing it last Christmas. I think some people (our parents) were a bit offended by it at first, with it slagging off our hometown, but it went down pretty well otherwise.
"Inspired by the dual voices and anti-Christmas sentiments of Fairytale, the song is split between two narratives voiced by Will and Lois. Lois sings about bumping into people you went to school with who have since done terrible things (a common theme from our school). Will sings specifically about Christmas Eve itself, with a feeling that with every year it gets a bit shitter, and everyone a bit less joyous. Together, they shape a story of growing older and how you feel it at this time of year. It’s also a plea for everyone to try and regain some of their lost ‘Christmas spirit’, in a slightly problematic boozy call to arms ("come on everybody just have one more beer!”). We’re looking forward to taking our ramshackle half-cut Christmas set out of Buckinghamshire to the George Tavern on 17th December!"
Home Counties’ new Christmas single is out now via Submarine Cat Records. The band play The George Tavern in London on 17 December before joining Franz Ferdinand as main support on their UK headline tour in spring 2026.
Home Counties Live Dates
﹡ = supporting Franz Ferdinand
DECEMBER
17 - The George Tavern, London (Home Counties X-Mas Show) - Fundraiser For Palestine
JANUARY
03 - Bognor Regis, Rockaway Beach Festival
FEBRUARY
21 - Belfast, Telegraph Building ﹡
24 - Dundee, Livehouse ﹡
25 - Leeds, O2 Academy ﹡
27 - Manchester, Manchester Academy ﹡
28 - Newcastle, O2 City Hall ﹡
MARCH
02 - Nottingham, Rock City ﹡
03 - Norwich, UEA ﹡
04 - Brighton, Brighton Dome ﹡
07 - Bristol, Bristol Beacon ﹡
08 - Cardiff, The Great Hall ﹡
10 - Portsmouth, Portsmouth Guildhall ﹡
11 - London, O2 Academy Brixton ﹡
* * *
Artist: Ski Team
Track: Santa
Ski Team, aka Lucie Lozinski, shares Santa the last song tracked during the making of her forthcoming album Burnout/Boys, due January 23. For this new music, she teamed up with producer Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Westerman, Buck Meek, & many more) and Josh Bonati (Wild Nothing, Sufjan Stevens, Mac DeMarco) for mastering.
With Santa you think you’re getting a song about one thing when you hear the levity in her exacting voice, but realise you’re in for something a little more uncanny when you listen into what she’s saying with those acrobatic runs: "he gives me a bump while we wait for the show / he’s the coolest guy I know.”
There’s nothing gushing about Ski Team's writing, but the witty, incisive humor of it gets to the depth of it from another angle; she’s an expounder, and a bit of a comedian, but not a diarist. There's a curious duality to her voice that mirrors this sentiment. The scalpel-like precision at every acrobatic turn is at times deceptively dainty, and will slice you when you least expect it; yet it's always full-bodied, as if it's sopped up every bit of emotional overflow and carries it with her. With the gorgeously stripped down rendition of Santa filmed and recorded at Harbor Studios in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that all becomes even more apparent:
"Santa is about having a crush on someone you shouldn’t, like an authority figure. Where it’s not the right time or right dynamic, but the idea is persistent. And the beauty and ache when the other person doesn’t allow it. Blows, but also…thank you... Some sadness and beauty," Lozinski explains.
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