The 1975 are an English alternative pop band from Manchester, England. The band consists of Matty Healy (lead vocalist), Adam Hann (lead guitarist), Ross Macdonald (lead bassist), and George Daniel (drummer).
After being away for 2 years, The 1975 came back with a bang with their first single of 2018, “Give Yourself A Try”. Not so long after, they released “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME”, “Sincerity Is Scary”, and “Love It If We Made It”. Very recently, on November 30th of 2018, The 1975 put their junior album, “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships,” out into the world.
The 1975: Just looking at the title, it is very reminiscent of the beginning of the past two albums. The song begins with a gentle piano and Matty's raw vocals. The raw vocals then become more autotuned, with a piano chord every now and then. I would definitely say, out of every “The 1975” intro, this one was my least favorite; although, it is still beautiful.
Give Yourself A Try: The song begins with the sound of an electric guitar, although it has an almost synthesized type of effect. This guitar riff does, in fact, carry on throughout the entirety of the song. At first listen, I wasn't convinced by this song; honestly, when they released this as their first single, I was scared for what the rest of the album would sound like. But after listening to this song many times since it's release, I've embraced the idea of a simplistic guitar riff, and just the sound of the song in general. It's the type of song you have to listen to many times for it to be able to grow on you. Another factor that really helped this song grow on me is the meaning behind the lyrics. Matty talks about how he has gained experience through life since when he first began the band at the ripe age of 16. Now at 29, he has realized many things and grown from his past experiences and mistakes. He says to give yourself a try because he wants younger listeners to hear this and be able to experience life and make mistakes because that is how you learn about not only life but also yourself.
TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME: This song definitely sounds like a mixture of their new sound and the sound of their sophomore album, “I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It”. The instrumentals are a throwback to that album yet mixed with the electronics of the new sound, it's something completely new. The 1975 are so good at making new sounds, yet still making it sound like them; it's really what makes them such talented artists. Matty seems to really define the idea of two-timing in this song. He approaches the matter simplistically by saying that they're both sleeping or talking to multiple other people without telling any of them. Since the theme of this entire album is the role of social media in today's society - whether its a negative or positive concept, I think Matty is definitely poking fun at the idea of online relationships and how unfaithful they can be. He points out that it is so easy to cheat on your significant other because they can't see what's actually going on beyond the screen.
How to Draw / Petrichor: This song leads us in with piano and what seems like light bongos and xylophone. The peacefulness and ease of the beginning of the song remind me of “Please Be Naked” and “Lostmyhead” from the second album. When you're done with your moment of calmness, the song transitions into a more electric beat. It then morphs back into the gentle piano and fades out.Once again, going along with the online theme of the album, Matty talks about not letting the internet ruin your perception of life. He really outlines the idea that the internet will take anything and turn it into a lie. Therefore you can't trust anything you see online.
Love It If We Made It: And here we have one of my favorite songs on this album. It's definitely my favorite single they released. The reason I absolutely love this song is that Matty sounds so emotionally drained and really makes everything about the meaning so much more powerful. This is one of the most familiar songs to my ears because it has so many influences from their first self titled album and “I Like It When You Sleep…” Everything from the beat, the instrumentals, Matty's voice, the meaning; It is all perfect. This song is literally just Matty screaming about issues happening in modern society and how modernity is failing us; failing us to be better than the past. He talks about issues as touchy as immigration, the black lives matter movement, and so much more. This is why I love this song so much. He sings about things that so many other artists in the industry are scared to talk/ or sing about because of fear of backlash. This song is powerful, lyrically and musically.
Be My Mistake: The acoustic guitar leads this entire song all the way through, which is something we don't normally hear from The 1975. The background vocals mixed with the rawness of Matty's voice is beautiful. Along with the strumming of the gentle guitar, there is soft piano and the background, adding to the simplistic beauty of this song. Everything from the production to the vocals is so simplistic, but I think that's what really makes it so beautiful. It's nice to hear Matty's raw vocals every once and a while because I'm so used to the autotuned and electronic effects. This song is definitely the remnants of a past relationship as Matty sings about how the current woman he is sleeping with is nothing compared to who he was with before. Towards the end, he says that this girl will watch him as he drinks away his pain and then tells her to be his mistake by sleeping with him. He doesn't really want to sleep with her because he is still stuck on this other woman who is obviously perfection in his eyes, but he's doing because he doesn't want to feel alone.
Sincerity Is Scary: The jazz instrumentals pulled me in instantly, making it a very pleasing song to listen to. Out of every song on this record, this one definitely feels the most familiar to me. Everything from the production to the instrumentation and his vocals, makes it feel like I'm listening to something from “I Like It When You Sleep…” As a big fan of that album, I truly appreciate this throwback to that unique sound. That kind of a mix between jazz and alt-pop, and Matty's voice just dancing over the instrumentals so smoothly. Everything goes together so perfectly.It's difficult to really wrap up everything he sings about in this song because there are a few different messages. He opens the song with how he copes with his anxiety by being sarcastic; as do many other people. He admits this isn't really the correct way to help himself and that he should probably find more mentally stabilizing ways to deal with it. He then brings in a line that is very special to many the 1975 fans: “what a shame”. They incorporate this phrase into many songs, which is why it's so heartwarming to hear it again. As you enter the chorus, Matty talks about why so many people don't consider their significant others “friends”. He basically calls it a stupid concept that you can't be lovers and friends at the same time. Just for the sake of this not becoming a novel, I'm just going to skim over the other messages in the song. Some others are women needing to be treated appropriately, how social media practically breed us to be insecure and that we need to stop letting it tell us who to be; we need to tell ourselves who we are.
I Like America & America Likes Me: Between the synthesizer, beat, and Matty's emotional voice; this song is beautifully powerful. The way Matty sings in this song throws me back to “Love It If We Made It”; he almost sounds as if he is screaming, but there is enough melody to his voice that still keeps it categorized as singing. Honestly, when I first listened to this song, I absolutely hated the autotune on Matty's voice but it's definitely something I've grown to love. The lyrics and his powerful vocals began to outweigh the heavy autotune, which is how I began to love it so much. Once you find things that are beautiful in a song, it kind of hides the bad parts. The meaning of this song is probably my favorite on this entire album, and even out of all of their songs in general. Very emotionally, Matty sings in a kid's perspective about how they're scared of dying because of shootings. Kids feel constantly vulnerable in school and many other places because guns are so accessible. Oftentimes, the people in charge don't take these younger kids seriously because of their age. “Would you please listen!” is such a powerful lyric to me - since Matty is singing from the perspective of a younger kid - it's like the kid is screaming for someone in the government to listen to them.
The Man Who Married A Robot/Love Theme: Since this isn't exactly a “song”, there isn't much to say about the music. Although, the gentle piano and violin carry this story beautifully, and makes it a very pleasant contrast to the British Siri voice. This story is so beautifully, tragically true; especially in today's society where people are on the internet 75% of their lifetime. Matty outlines the fact that a person who watches porn regularly on the internet is going to be less likely to find a significant other because it makes it seem like he loves people on the internet more than them. The whole idea of this story is to really engrain the reality of internet in your brain. The internet really destroys good relationships with your family, friends, and significant others. It's sad that nowadays people would rather text than see each other face-to-face. I absolutely adore Matty for pointing this very important - and very real - issue out because many artists or people, in general, have a hard time admitting this.
Inside Your Mind: The piano hits suddenly, and very heavily right in the beginning. There is something I oddly love so much about the abrupt piano. When Matty's deeper voice starts playing along with the music, I couldn't help but be reminded of “Antichrist” from their self titled album. “Antichrist” is my favorite song by them, so it is nice to have a refresher of his deeper, more gloomy register. His voice almost sounds haunting. As romantic as this song sounds, it actually has quite a bit of gore in it. Matty talks about wanting to crack open the skull of whom he loves to see what they're really thinking about him. He's so desperately in love that he needs the assurance that they're thinking about him. There is also a hint of sadness in this song when he talks about how even though he's in a committed relationship, he still has anxieties about his partner leaving him and other worst-case scenarios.
It's Not Living (If It's Not With You): The song opens up with that dream-pop, upbeat sound that so many people love (including me) love about The 1975. This is the type of song that makes you want to get up and dance, and just let loose for a few minutes. But then, once you sit there and listen to the lyrics, you might let out a tear or two because it's much darker than the instrumentals lead you to believe. It wouldn't be a The 1975 song if it wasn't upbeat with a hidden, darker meaning. In the beginning, Matty talks about a boy named Danny can't live without heroin and how even when he's on vacation, he's searching the streets for something to shoot in his veins. Then the song takes a sharp turn when Matty says that he's in the same shoes as Danny. He then relates heroin to being a person, and how he's not really living when he doesn't have heroin in his body. Then the song goes into things such as how when he's on drugs, he's thinking about things like simulation theory, and how drugs help him stop thinking about the bad things going on in his life, and heroin has become his replacement for human affection. (He is now sober, and we're all very proud of you, Matty.)
Surrounded By Heads and Bodies: Everything from the weird background vocals to the guitar strumming makes the song sound so beautifully ethereal. The way Matty's voices dances along the rhythm along with the background vocals is so stunning and masterful. The production of this song is absolutely incredible and whoever produced this song deserves a huge round of applause. It's such a short and simplistic song, but it encompasses every factor a song should have and even goes beyond that. When I heard about what and who this song is about, I'm not ashamed to say that I definitely started sobbing. Matty wrote this song about Angela, who was a patient at the same place Matty went to for his drug addiction. He starts by describing her physical state as a “post-traumatic mess” that she wears like a dress. Obviously, recovering from addiction is not easy, and there are many times a person will relapse or have bad physical reactions to not having those drugs in their system anymore. Matty shares that he was given drugs to aid these withdrawal symptoms and other mental issues. He says that even though they never spoke and rarely saw each other, he saw her in his sleep because he felt connected to her and was fond of her.
Mine: The song opens up with the gentle piano and a raspy-sounding saxophone. This definitely sounds like The 1975 are creating their own kind of ‘jazz standard’. It's so uniquely beautiful. I really enjoy the soft - but still very prominent - instrumentals, which allow Matty's voice to take over. Then towards the end, after Matty stops singing, the instruments take the lead and then continue to fade off into nothing. Matty starts off by talking about how there is this standard in modern society that a man Matty's age (29), needs to settle down. He contradicts this standard by stating that he doesn't need to marry this girl to prove anything because they are in love and neither one of them are leaving. He compares the state of his relationship to the sunshine, because everything about it is good and going well. Matty then shares with us that his partner thinks that he is wasting her time by not settling down with her, but he reassures her by saying everything is fine and that he just doesn't want to get married.
I Couldn't Be More In Love: Once again, we get another sort of jazz standard from The 1975. Matty's vocals on this song are probably some of the best, emotionally, we've heard from him. He almost sounds bruised as he sings along from the verses to the chorus. The way that he can literally pour his entire heart and soul, and every ounce of his pain, through his voice, is so tragically beautiful. Matty shares that even at his best, he's lonely in his mind. Matty is scared of losing people because of the speed of time, culture, and the internet. Everything goes by so quickly, and he's afraid of people losing interest in the things he shares or has to offer. Then Matty talks about the idea of him dying and feeling like when it happens, there will be so much he could've done to better himself. Where he feels like once he dies, he'll feel like he could've done one more good thing. Or the negative to that, he “could have been a sign”. Where he feels like he doesn't care as long as he gets to keep something. No matter how bad of a person he could be, he just wants something he could call his own - such as his fanbase. Then he transitions back to the good things and says he could “overstay his time” if he's good enough.
I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes): Very similar to the beginning of “Be My Mistake”, we're greeted by the strumming of a guitar. As they transition from the verse to the chorus, the guitar transforms into a mix of intense guitar and drums that almost drown Matty out. But something about that gives the song such an isolating, lonely theme; which definitely goes with the song title. After the instrumentals and vocals cut out, a haunting noise starts and closes the song out. Because of the weird placement of this noise, it almost makes it seem as if that will flow into the beginning of the next upcoming album. Through the first verse, Matty compares a train ride to a journey to happiness or feeling complete. He talks about the feeling of thinking you've arrived at that point in your life, but really you're going to be back on that train again because you've lost yourself. He shares that he's not afraid of himself dying, he's more afraid of his family and friends dying, and that's where his fear of death originates from. “I always wanna die, sometimes” is the way many people feel nowadays. That feeling of everything being too much and life just weighing down on you simply makes you just want to die; but at the same time, there is that fear of actually committing to wanting to die. Once again, Matty brings up his addiction and how he lost all of his confidence before rehab. He was afraid of himself, scared of saying the wrong things, and scared of bettering himself. Then we end the bridge with one of my favorite lines from the album: “If you can't survive; just try.” I think this is such an important thing for someone who is struggling with mental health to hear, which is why I praise Matty for singing about it. Even if you feel like you can't survive, just try to do it; do things as simple as drinking water or taking a walk. Just try and make an effort.
Overall, this album stunned me, to say the least. Honestly, I listened to this album at least five times and each time, I felt disappointed. But it took me five listens to realize that I wasn't listening to it the right way. This album felt very personal and vulnerable to me, so it felt right to listen to it in an isolated space with no other noises to distract me. After that listen, I began falling more and more in love with the album. Matty poured out his emotions in each song, and each song told a story within a story; the details were all so prominent. The production of this album also definitely helped make the listening experience more enjoyable; when songs flow nicely, it definitely makes an album that much better.
The 1975 are releasing another album this year, so make sure you stay tuned for that as well!
Check out The 1975 on Spotify
Make sure you follow the band on Instagram and Twitter: @the1975
Review written by Kenna and edited by Ash!
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