Home Front Watch It Die
Home Front's Watch It Die lands as a bruising, synth-laced confrontation with mortality and malaise, and across professional reviews the record earns a clear if not unanimous nod for its combustible energy. Critics point to the album's push-pull between punk immediacy and 1980s new wave sheen as the defining force, with songs like “Light Sleeper”, “Watch It Die” and “Eulogy” emerging repeatedly as standout moments that fuse shout-along fury with sticky hooks. The collection has earned a 70.67/100 consensus score across three professional reviews, a figure that captures both the record's strengths and the reservations some reviewers express about occasional melodic thinness.
Reviewers consistently highlight themes of duality - a Jekyll-and-Hyde tension of anger, introspection and survival - where grit meets synth-pop gloss. Exclaim praises the album's violent catharsis and communal focus, citing the title track and “Eulogy” for their urgent hooks, while Paste emphasizes hard-hitting cuts such as “Always This Way” and the stitching power of reflective tracks like “Between the Waves”. Kerrang! singles out “Light Sleeper” as the emotional and radio-ready hinge even as it flags moments of colourless synth and spare solos.
Taken together, the critical consensus suggests Watch It Die is a compelling step for Home Front - not flawless but often thrilling - where synth-rock vs punk tensions and political frustration fuel some of the record's best songs and most memorable turns. Below, the full reviews unpack where the album's catharsis succeeds and where restraint or repetition tempers the praise.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
For The Children (F*ck All)
2 mentions
"Fuck all is all that's left for us!"— Exclaim
Always This Way
1 mention
"tracks like “New Madness” and “Always This Way” are driven by Peter Hook-style basslines"— Paste Magazine
Dancing With Anxiety
2 mentions
"Dancing with Anxiety sounds like a hidden B-side from Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine"— Exclaim
Fuck all is all that's left for us!
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Watch It Die
New Madness
Light Sleeper
Between The Waves
Eulogy
The Vanishing
For The Children (F*ck All)
Kiss The Sky
Always This Way
Dancing With Anxiety
Young Offender
Empire
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 4 critics who reviewed this album
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Critic's Take
Home Front make Watch It Die feel like a haymaker to the teeth of death, and the best songs - the title track “Watch It Die” and the bittersweet “Eulogy” - deliver that violent catharsis with urgent hooks and shouting intensity. MacKinnon’s rousing lead single “Light Sleeper” is another standout, a stirring call against isolation that the reviewer treats as the emotional center of the record. The band refuse to become repetitive, moving from the cowbell-sparked danciness of “Kiss The Sky” to the industrial echo of “Dancing With Anxiety” while keeping a DIY, wall-of-sound production that uplifts rather than grates. Ultimately, the album’s best tracks win by combining brutality and melody, rooted in community and survival rather than solipsism.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its soaring catharsis and shouted urgency, making it the album's emotional punch.
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The album's core strengths are urgent, community-rooted songwriting and varied, heavy production that avoids repetitiveness.
Themes
Critic's Take
Ricky Adams hears Home Front living in a Jekyll-and-Hyde tug-of-war on Watch It Die, where punk immediacy and glossy new-wave melody trade blows. He singles out “New Madness” and “Always This Way” as the records' hardest-hitting moments, while noting that reflective cuts like “Between the Waves” and “Dancing With Anxiety” stitch the halves together. The result, Adams argues, is an album sharpened by anger and unease, with a handful of best songs that linger because of their raw, shout-along energy.
Key Points
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The best songs are the punk-forward tracks like "New Madness" because their immediacy and pub-singalong hooks dominate memory.
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The album's core strength is its deliberate Jekyll-and-Hyde tension, balancing reflective synth-pop with visceral punk aggression to explore anger and social unease.
Themes
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Critic's Take
Home Front keep steering Watch It Die between grim lyrics and gleaming synth-rock, and the best tracks - notably “Light Sleeper” and “Between The Waves” - show that tension most clearly. Rishi Shah revels in the album's ability to marry sweaty punk attitude with BBC 6Music-friendly hooks, even as he grumbles about moments of melodic simplicity. If you ask which are the best songs on Watch It Die, his ear keeps returning to the radio-ready chorus of “Light Sleeper” and the motoring thump of “Between The Waves” for capturing the record's winning, retro-pop craft. The review balances praise and reservation, calling the album consistently easy listening while noting some colourless synths and lukewarm solos.
Key Points
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The best song is “Light Sleeper” because its radio-ready chorus encapsulates the album's twin impulses.
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The album's core strength is marrying 1980s new wave synth sheen with gnarly punk guitars to make easily accessible yet edgy songs.