Then there’s Somebody Else, which continues the surprisingly downbeat tempo with a throbbing synth line that wouldn’t sound out of place on the Drive soundtrack. Change Of Heart is the most striking early example of the band’s willingness to broaden their horizons, its meandering 80s synths providing the basis for Healy to sing about his state of mind, while the introspective lyrics go even further on the soulful If I Believe (“If I’m lost then how can I find myself”), which is sprinkled with gospel touches.Īny suggestions that this is a record purely aimed at mass appeal are further rebuked by the melancholic instrumental Please Be Naked, before The Ballad Of Me And My Brain delves deeper into Healy’s mental state as the frontman starts to really let off steam. The short self-titled opener sets the bizarre foundations for what’s to come, Healy’s vocal backed to powerful effect by an atmospheric choir, before disjointedly jumping straight into Love Me.įrom there onwards, The 1975 prove that comparisons with Boyzone are way off the mark.
In fact, if Love Me seemed like a curveball – even with its bold chorus (“And love me yeah/ If that’s what you wanna do”) – it’s nothing compared to the rest of the record.Ĭertainly no rehash of their debut, where every song sounded like it was being prepared specifically for radio airplay, I Like It… veers wildly from expansive synth ballads to jittery pop tunes and even surprising moments of gospel.
It might be the sort of gimmick that can make The 1975 irritating, but once you get beyond it there is plenty to admire here. The band’s ambition to move forward even pervades their new album’s stupidly long title, I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It. As a result, The 1975’s return is punctuated by a desire to push the boundaries of their sound, demonstrated by the funky lead single Love Me. The four-piece’s scattergun approach saw them combine multiple genres, as well as demonstrating their obvious talent for writing huge pop hooks on tracks such as The City, Chocolate and Sex. Yet, while The 1975’s self-titled début was clearly shooting for mainstream success, it was far from your typical pop record. This was demonstrated most recently by the bafflingly awkward spat between Matt Healy and Jon McClure from Reverend & The Makers, starting after the latter said that The 1975’s frontman “does his cake in”, before going on to compare the band to Boyzone.Īlthough it’s easy to attribute McClure’s comments to sour grapes – The Reverend’s dislike of Radio 1 and playlist committees is well known – his later Tweet that “mass popularity and quality are often mutually exclusive” can regularly be applied to many of the artists that populate the charts. Despite their obvious mainstream appeal, The 1975 have been divisive since they burst onto the scene with their already extensive collection of radio-ready pop singles in 2012.