A lot of bands claim that they do all sorts of music, that they aren't tied to genre, that they are wayfarers, explorers of all music has to offer. But no popular band quite walks the walk like The 1975 do. They are still anchored loosely to the indie-pop sphere, but they have also gone quite deep into electronic music, dabbled in jazz, gone full on R&B, and much more. That makes them a great band to get familiar with if you want to use indie music as a launching pad to listen to other genres, as you get to taste test a banquet of genres and styles to see what appeals immediately and explore it. So if you want to learn more about the band or just generally read my ramblings about this band's discography, then you're in the right place.
The 1975
Kind of like: R.E.M, The Cure (the poppy stuff), Wallows, Declan McKenna Songs to try: Chocolate, The City, Robbers, Menswear
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The self-titled album from The 1975 is what I like to call an "and yet" album. It has plenty of flaws: it can be a bit one-note and repetitive, a decent chunk of the songs barely have a concept at all and are just gibberish (Chocolate being a key example), and Matty Healy's vocals can drift into a really strange and performative cockney accent... And yet, I still enjoy it. It's one of those pieces of media where flaws only serve to strengthen the broader piece. It's not something that a career can be built from unless you're Alvvays, but it's an endearing way to get a foothold in the zeitgeist.
Essentially, this album does exactly what you expect a debut album to do for any great band: set's down an anchor, establishing an identity and creating something fun and worthwhile in the process. Very few people can blow people away with their first album, and this is the next best thing. It sets the groundwork for something incredible to come later.
Some songs to try (if you haven't heard the best this album has to offer already) include gibberish-filled smash hit Chocolate, weirdly warm anthem The City, arguable magnum opus for the band Robbers, and the instrumental lead fan-favourite Menswear.
A quick note on the EP tracks by the way: a lot of it isn't really worth seeking out unless you've already listened to the albums and want to dive deeper, but some songs really stand out, even amongst the rest of their discography. Fallingforyou, Me, You, and to a lesser extent Antichrist and Woman are all pretty great, although the latter two have some really messy production that, in my opinion adds a lot to the song, even if unintentionally. But of course messy production might ruin a song for some people regardless so it warrants a mention. They shouldn't be entirely ignored, but you should probably leave them for last unless you feel like listening to the above cherry-picked songs beforehand.
I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It
Kind of like: Michael Jackson, The Human League, Sell-out era Bowie, Tears For Fears Songs to try: The Sound (trust me, give it a real chance), Paris, Somebody Else
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The band's sophomore attempt is all about pushing their boundaries. In their first album, they established themselves as a great indie band using 80's synth pop with an indie rock formula to create something that would quickly become the go-to sound for indie over the remainder of the decade, more or less. Perhaps anticipating this shift, The 1975 started taking inspiration from more disparate influences here. The result is a great improvement to the band's sound that may well have saved them from becoming just one in a massive crowd of similar acts. The album does suffer from a bit of over-indulgence (usually in the form of overlong instrumentals that don't warrant the runtime, which makes the songs that do warrant it feel less special), but that also means that when the balance is struck right - which it is more often than not - there is this wonderfully decadent vibe about the album, as if it's set in a french castle during a crazy party that's gotten just a little out of hand.
Everything about this points to it being a sequel to their debut, and they have nailed everything you'd want from a good sequel, addressing a lot of the flaws, while only really introducing one: the lack of focus brought upon by the broader scope. Everything the 1975 would come to be is on full display here as the album that is essentially about that sound. If they hadn't opened with their self-titled album, much like they do on a track-by-track level, then this would be their self-titled album. They'll have albums I prefer later on, but nothing sums up the band quite like this.
If you're looking for some songs to try, primarily, I'd recommend listening to The Sound with intent. The song totally transforms when you actually pay attention in a way I might write specifically about on my B-Sides blog. Trust me on that, I remember thinking of it as vapid too, but there's some cool depth to it if you give it a chance. Otherwise, Somebody Else is a clear highlight, and so is Paris.
A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
Kind of like: Stranger in the Alps by Phoebe Bridgers, post-2010 Paramore, Jubilee by Japanese Breakfast, The Japanese House Songs to try: Love It If We Made It, Sincerity Is Scary, I Like America & America Likes Me
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This is quite possibly my personal favourite album. It's got a little bit of that 1975 messiness that I touched on in the previous album's feature, but it just works a lot better here for me. It's a pretty lazy excuse to say of the album sequencing "it's reflecting the whiplash you feel on the internet, going from learning about war to a thirst trap at the flick of a thumb", but if it works, it works. I think one of the reason's it does work, is because it isn't pushing that excuse too far. It's used to justify some slightly below standard sequencing that doesn't fall enough below par to actually make your attention drift. Or at least that's my experience.
Of course though, album sequencing isn't much of an issue when you have a ton of great songs to show people. It's not like anyone cares how Thriller is sequenced, because whatever order you put the songs in, they are absolutely brilliant. I think that's another reason that this album works so well. You've got most of the best songs in the band's discography here, and three of my personal top five are in a four song stretch. That's a lot of numbers I've just thrown at you, so let me give you something more tangible:
Widely beloved anthem for a politically abandoned generation Love It If We Made It
Tender love ballad written towards a person they are going to cheat on their loved one with Be My Mistake
Thoughtful, jazzy, and philosophical track about vulnerability which is basically the precursor for their latest album Being Funny In A Foreign Language: Sincerity Is Scary, and
Their experimental and synthetic masterpiece about how American culture has not only harmed the US, but also spread to and globally gentrified countries in it's sphere of influence (particularly the country me and the band are both from: the UK): I Like America & America Likes Me.
That is the four track run I mentioned and it's incredible song after incredible song. Again, no one cares how you sequence music this good.
There's so much more where that came from though, and it's not quite as bloated as their most egregiously overcooked albums, so I can safely say I personally recommend this album as the 1975 album to prioritize if you're looking to get into them.
P.S: I just want to highlight a really cool line that I never really appreciated until this past listen from How To Draw/Petrichor
They can take anything as long as it’s true What they can’t take is you telling them lies
I just think that sums up what love is. Or should be. Being able to take whatever it is that a loved one might need to tell you as long as it’s honest, and working through it with them however you can. That’s love right there, and it’s a simple line that just highlights that beautifully for me.
Notes On a Conditional Form
Kind of like: Burial, late Radiohead, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships... (idk, this album is a lot) Songs to try: If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know), What Should I Say, People
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Notes is a strange album. It's definitely the least The-1975-sounding album of their discography, with the band clearly having strong sonic wanderlust, so it's difficult to find a way to talk about the album in the context of their wider discography and to discern who to recommend it to.
And that might be worth pointing out here: this album is very divisive. It's not totally without value, and I'm sure you'd struggle to find an open-minded person who thought as much, but when the album is 1hr 20m long, you're gonna have to justify that really well. Unfortunately, I don't think they do in the sense that they fail, to varying degrees, to take advantage of the album as a format, even outside of the length. I'll get into the upsides of this album in a second (and there are definite upsides I could take from the album that redeem it somewhat for me and entirely for some), but first I'd like to give a fair warning to people about why they might not like the album.
First, the lack of focus. As much as I loved the broad scope of their previous two albums (particularly ABIIOR), I think this album takes it too far. I saw one review describe it as two albums that are constantly clashing with each other, and that feels apt. Now, to be clear, I really like the experimentation with electronic sounds. I think they handled it very tastefully in most cases, and in all cases I'd call it at least decently fun. But that being said, you can't just put peppy indie pop anthems right next to electronic UK garage beats and expect it to just work. And then there's People, which again, I enjoy, but it's so separate from the rest of the album that it has to be separated from it via an instrumental interlude. Which brings me to my next point...
The start of this album sets the tone horribly. I'm not referring to the title track being a Greta speech, I can get behind that, but let me just illustrate my thought process in the initial 5 song run for a second:
The 1975 - "Oh, we're going with a Greta speech to open the album, sure, it's a strange move, but it works well enough"
People - "Okay, cool, a banger to kickstart the album, good stuff, lets get this underway"
The End (Music For Cars) - "An interlude? Already? Okay, well I guess we can't have a whole album of songs like People, especially when the album is 80 minutes long, so I guess this is fine..."
Frail State of Mind - "Okay, surely this is the jumping off point then, cool, we got a nice blend of an electronic sound and classic 1975 stuff to bring us into the main chunk of the album, that's good"
Streaming - "Why do we have another interlude here?! We don't need another interlude! Frail State of Mind is a perfectly easy song to transition from! We don't need to bring everything to a halt here!"
Cue another 16 songs that erratically bounce from sound to sound with no interlude, making this run feel pointlessly derailing anyway.
The last key problem I want to bring up here is pretty straightforward: It's too long. 80 minutes is too many minutes. You have to do so much to justify someone paying attention to you for that long, and combined with the other ways the album just doesn't work as an album, they just fall very short if you're looking for a cohesive project that flows in a way that makes sense.
It's made all the more frustrating by the fact that the solution seems simple: make it a double album. Put the more conventional 1975 with more organic instrumentation on one "disc" and the more digital, out-there stuff on the other. The length isn't as egregious because 80 minutes between two albums is totally standard, even a little short; the sequencing doesn't need to be as messy because you're doing it between two far more cohesive groups of songs instead of having to slalom back and forth through styles seamlessly; and the scope is again far more reasonable when spread across two albums.
Somewhat related to that solution as well is the fact that, in my opinion, on a track by track basis, this is a great collection of songs. It's not the same situation as a lot of overlong albums where the quality of the music suffers because they're just chucking in anything that slightly works, these songs are all about on par with their other stuff for me. It's an impressive feat, but the feeling that these songs should make up two great albums instead of one long one that falls short in a lot of ways, for me, is overwhelming.
Thinking about who to recommend this to now, I think there are some obvious groups of people: first, if you don't really care about the album as a format and just want to hear a good collection of songs, this is that, and if you have an interest in both indie pop and electronic music, you'll have a blast with it. Then, the other key group is people who just want more of The 1975. If you just haven't heard enough yet for your liking, there's a lot to dig your teeth into here.
Ultimately, while I am very much of the belief that this fails fundamentally as an album, if you can engage with it as a glorified playlist or something along those lines, there's plenty of fun to be had and plenty of highlights on a track-by-track level.
Being Funny In a Foreign Language
Kind of like: Bleachers, late Vampire Weekend, Billie Joel Songs to try: Part of the Band, Oh Caroline, I'm In Love With You
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This is a sharp turn. This is a The 1975 album through and through, and that honestly makes it the least 1975 album yet. There is some slight experimentation with their sound, but it's an album-wide shift that makes the project feel so much more cohesive. I'd describe the sound as ever-so-slightly folk leaning. It's not a folk album, but it's got a slight folkiness to it, like someone shifting their accent slightly after living in a new country for a bit. They aren't talking Spanish, but their accent has changed in that direction slightly. And it really suits them.
It's also quite comfortably their shortest album at a downright average length of 43 minutes. A massive shock after the film-length album that preceded it, and even before that their albums were always slightly on the long side for my taste so I'm personally thrilled with the restraint they've shown in that regard.
Those shifts make this album, for my money, the best example of the album format in their discography. I can't quite describe it as my favourite album of theirs, because as much as the quality of the songs isn't everything, I do enjoy the songs off of ABIIOR to an extent that it is my preferred album of theirs, but this is an album that, if developed on properly, could be the foundation on which an honest to god 10/10 masterpiece is built.
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