Monday 7 January 2019

Album Review: I Don't Wanna Go Home by H_ngm_n


H_ngm_n are a emo/pop punk duo from the south coast of England. At the end of November 2018 the duo released a brand new EP on Real Ghost Records titled I Don't Wanna Go Home. H_ngm_n are one of the hottest new bands in the country and I expected big things from these four songs.


I Don't Wanna Go Home begins with the song Matchsticks. Starting out with a gentle guitar riff and vocals, we are eased into the song. Straight away I felt like this is a very accessible sounding band for many fans of a few different genres of punk rock. That accessible sound also continues with a wonderfully catchy chorus that you'll be singing along to after one listen. The second track is titled Happy Birthday. It's a slower song but has a much bigger and atmospheric sound. It's one I can imagine being great live with a crowd being completely transfixed by the band. It starts off in a pretty sad fashion with the lyrics "I was lying when I said it, happy birthday, I hope you have the worst day, it's the least that you deserve." From there we go on to a song about a fractured friendship and holding a grudge.

The third track, Ghost, starts is a similar fashion to the EP's opening song. The gentle jangly guitar and the impressive vocal get things going before a thumping drum beat joins the party. Vocally this song sounds much more emotional than the previous two tracks and this is what really grabs your attention as does the chorus. The words "jump off a bridge and come back as a ghost, come haunt your house and nobody will know" immediately found a comfortable home inside my head. The final song on I Don't Wanna Go Home is named Empty. Empty was a fantastic choice to finish the EP with. Starting with some big vocals, the song gradually builds adding more and more emotion as it goes on. It's a song about feeling negative all of the time. The lyric that stands out is "I wish I could live in your world, where everything is totally awesome, but my glass ain't half full, it's empty and cracked at the bottom." Throughout this entire EP I've been really impressed with the songwriting skills of H_ngm_n. Finishing the song with some terrific gang vocals with the words "who am I anyway?" brings the song and the EP to some conclusion.

Based on I Don't Wanna Go Home I feel like H_ngm_n could be the future of UK emo. If you're a fan of emo then don't sleep on these guys.

Stream and download I Don't Wanna Go Home here: https://hngmnuk.bandcamp.com/album/i-dont-wanna-go-home

Like H_ngm_n here: https://www.facebook.com/hngmnuk

This review was written by Colin Clark.

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