From bursting on to the scene with a strong radio presence through hit singles ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Sex’ in 2013 and quickly followed by a platinum debut album, The 1975 have always seemed somewhat a contradiction. Their quintessentially dour indie band aesthetic appeared at odds with their predominantly pop music. I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful and yet so unaware of it feels more natural. It’s not that the Manchester four piece have stopped writing poppy songs, nor have they completely abandoned their “boyband gone bad” image – more the two have harmoniously met somewhere in the middle.
The intro ‘The 1975’ is an interestingly re-worked version of the first song from the debut album, this time front man Healy’s vocals lead an accompanying gospel choir who also return later in the album on ‘If I Believe You’. The leading singles, ‘Love Me’, ‘Ugh!’ and ‘The Sound’ all feature beats which 80s pop legend Prince would be proud of. These are intertwined in the track list with meandering instrumentals ‘Please Be Naked’ and the title track which take us on journeys that would not be misplaced in an ambient boiler room setting. An insight is provided into the reflective, unerringly honest self critical side to Healy’s personality in ‘Change of Heart’, ‘Somebody Else’ and ‘Paris’. Healy’s honesty is most noticeable in the latter, “I’ve got two left feet and I’m starting to cheat on my girlfriend again”. The way in which Healy repeatedly returns to topics of drug abuse and the toll this takes on relationships occasionally becomes tedious, saved only by his Mike Skinner-esque eye for a lyric, for example “you look shit and you smell a bit”. The band have repeatedly expressed a desire to “create in the way that we consume” and this album delivers just that in how it refuses to be pigeon-holed into a single genre.
The 1975 have faced an unfair uphill struggle to be taken seriously amongst the musical elite. I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful and yet so unaware of it is more than enough to put an end to those doubts and places the band firmly amongst those respected in British music.
Rory Shell