‘We’re born alone / We die alone’ – how’s that for a radio-ready chorus hook? The irony to Light Sleeper, the lead single from Watch It Die, encompasses much of the duality around Home Front’s second album. Faced with the inevitable, the Edmonton band overpower bleak truths (‘A piece of my spirit dies every day’) with hunky-dory synth-rock, catapulting us back to the ’80s with some unshakeable new wave sensibilities.
Since forming in 2020 around the core duo of lead vocalist Graeme MacKinnon and multi-instrumentalist Clint Frazier, the Canadian quintet have been carving out their own electro-punk lane, visibly marrying the two worlds on their 2023 debut Games Of Power. Watch It Die seamlessly picks up that baton, doubling down on a sound that can draw in BBC 6Music dads just as easily as skinhead punks.
Consistently, Watch It Die is easy listening. That’s a compliment, given the way that gnarly guitar lines and shouted vocals can intertwine with synth lines you’d expect from The Killers, such as the motoring thump of Between The Waves. It’s also a critique on the simplicity of some melodies. The colourless synth line of New Madness and Light Sleeper’s lukewarm guitar solo both struggle to invoke any compelling sense of emotion.
