ALBUM REVIEW: The Xcerts – ‘i think i want to go home now.’

i think i want to go home now. is a rather revealing title for The Xcerts’ new album. Perhaps on its face, it isn’t; it’s a wistful phrase in keeping with the mood evoked from previous releases’ names. Then you remember that this is coming directly after Learning How To Live And Let Go, a shockingly maligned album to come from this band. It wasn’t that bad in the end, but you also can’t argue with the criticisms levelled its way. Gone was the big-hearted, windswept pop-rock that ranked The Xcerts among the greats of Scotland’s melodic stables, replaced by loud, abrasive, TikTok-eyeing material that was roughly a few light years out of their wheelhouse. Even the band themselves seemed to realise it at the time, if a more self-deprecating demeanour than usual was anything to go by. Thus, ‘i think i want to go home now.’ can just as easily read as ‘let’s go back to what worked, okay?’.

If that could be interpreted as some sheepish backslide to sweep away an ill-advised, iller-fated move, that isn’t how the album itself feels. No, this is just…The Xcerts, as they should be. They’re wholeheartedly back to earnest, towering emotions and songcraft, and seeming rejuvenated while they’re at it. The first song proper do it to myself nails down how complete comeback is—instrumentally, it’s bright and gutsy, slammed forward by Murray Macleod’s oft-critical soul-searching and left with truckloads of momentum. That’s the template for i think i want to go home now. as a whole, exactly what produced The Xcerts’ great results every other time.

To really split hairs, i think i want to go home now. isn’t quite at the level of There Is Only You or Hold On To Your Heart, but those albums are special pieces of the Britrock canon that aren’t just toppled easily. Even on an album engineered to be a return to form, The Xcerts’ catalogue is just that airtight. That’s not to say this one can’t sit amongst it, though. Indeed, songs like sinking feeling and losing it are cut from the same irresistible slacker-pop cloth as Kids On Drugs and Drive Me Wild, and bury you reigns surpreme as the album’s bar-none punchiest, most propulsive cut. The ballads, too, remain a core strength of The Xcerts, thanks to Macleod’s quiver and what it adds to dream you in and in your eyes.

More so than just doing what they used to, though, it’s the palpability of The Xcerts that makes their new album so good. It’s always been what’s elevated them above the similarly polished Britrock pack, who give the impression of emotionality without the deeper payoff to make it stick. i think i want to go home now. is, yet again, an example of why The Xcerts are naturals at this. A slew of worries and tragedies at the album’s centre—a breakup; a cancer scare; the death of a parent—is presented with real stakes, and executed accordingly. Even a song like wow, flippant by comparison, has some much-appreciated gristle in it.

In fact, i think i want to go home now. is a great palette-cleanser in more ways than expected. Not only is back to the core of what makes The Xcerts work, but it’s a reminder of how they can transcend the ever-shrinking standards of Britrock. Production-wise, you could transpose this onto a Mallory Knox album with no hassle, but coming from The Xcerts, it’s just…better. Maybe it’s how much of a role pop-rock and power-pop play, and how that additional fuzz isn’t sheered off by a slicker mix. dream you in is a great example of that, where its balladic form isn’t overblown or embossed, but tender and textured from an anchoring guitar. Conversely, pretty ugly’s antagonistic sound is almost like an old We Are The Ocean song for a good, one-off curveball.

On the whole, then, i think i want to go home now. represents a sparkling-clean slate for The Xcerts. Any lingering worries of Epitaph-mandated alt-pop making a return are gone, buried under the band we know and love. As a course correction, it’s justified rather than reactionary, and thoughtful in its execution. This could’ve been the follow-up to Hold On To Your Heart; there’s no awkward or disjointed fit to speak of. And while it’s very tempting to soapbox about “bands evolving” and how “they could’ve easily stuck with it”, at the end of the day, the results are plain to see. i think i want to go home now. is what everyone wants from The Xcerts, including, it seems, The Xcerts themselves.

For fans of: Deaf Havana, Lonely The Brave, Fatherson

‘i think i want to go home now.’ by The Xcerts is released on 10th July on FLG Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall