It’s been a busy year for Homesafe, having first exploded into the U.K. with a great show at the annual Slam Dunk festival and with them now releasing their debut album One. This gang of four from Chicago have created an album dripping with the maturity and skill usually found in older bands. These guys have been honing their skills for years and have now reached the point where making an album is the next natural step. This is a great album filled with catchy tunes and the changes in tempo and style take you on a real musical journey.

By Martin Frank

Point Break introduces you to their powerful thrashy side, with the track being a little Blink 182, and a little Linkin Park, producing familiar sounding tunes that make you want to jump and shout. Run, one of the tracks that the crowds at Slam Dunk were singing back is catchy and fun with lines like “I can’t take it if you can’t take it” and “Do you ever feel like you’re the one who never takes the jump but always takes the fall,”
There are songs here for everyone, especially if you are having a tough first love experience – Say Something, Have it all, Stay Away, Get It Right, are all songs filled with the traumas of love. The album has teen angst but don’t be fooled into thinking these are a teeny bop band as they’re not, in and around the fun sugar tunes there is a sense of anger and venom from these four angry young men. Sadistic Society is an Orwellian track, being a protest song of sorts crying out “What’s it like to oppress every living thing?”, and Suits and Ties is a scream at the establishment and “Those who think they’re in charge”, warning “As long as I’ve got feet I’ll run, as long as I’m happy I’m strong.”
The start of the album makes you want to jump and shout and then gradually it softens towards with acoustic tracks like Stay Away and Sideways Sleeper where we find harmonies and delicate rhythms sounding not a million miles away from Coldplay, but here that’s not a bad thing. One is a great album from beginning to end, so make sure you enjoy the different styles and the superb lyrics. To top it all off they finish the album with a piano instrumental demonstrating that the end of their album is as important as the beginning. This is without doubt a polished and mature debut album, so make sure you have fun and enjoy it!