Blog

Over the past while, I haven’t had the chance to write as much as I would have liked, what with moving countries and all but one thing about where I am currently in London, is that from when I leave the house to getting to work, I generally have the time to listen to one album.

One of the album’s that has helped me with my new morning commute is the debut from The 1975. When I reviewed their Sex EP, I wondered about how the band would meld all their sounds instead of heading off in different directions. I like how they’ve dealt with it.

Matt Healy, Ross MacDonald, Adam Hann and George Daniel are The 1975. They make indie pop music, from Manchester, they have a knack for producing memorable melodies and lyrics, timeless songs, why timeless? There are many elements to their music and production that seem to stem from the 1980’s, like the blue eye soul breaking through ‘Girls’.

Earlier released tracks, ‘The City’ and ‘Sex’ have been given a make over which knocks the rawness off the tracks and takes a little getting used to. But these re-records are part of what make the album a collection, not just random tracks. The other thing that helps achieve this is the spacing in the album.

16 quality tracks is a lot for any band to produce for a debut. The album is intro-ed by ‘The 1975’, a dreamy one minute twenty. The first part of the album includes ‘The City’, which is very much a ‘band’ song. This is followed by ‘M.O.N.E.Y.’, samples and studio trickery build a sparse but full soundscape.
At this point, it seems like The 1975 have played all their cards up front, adding ‘Sex’ and ‘Chocolate’. This chapter ends with ‘Talk’, clever drums and lyrics and the trademark vocal lines define this.

The next section is introduced with ‘Encounter’ an instrumental one minute fifteen which builds up and clearly starts the section of the album. As The 1975 has already been to Number One it’s hard to know how much more promotion could follow in the UK. Last single ‘Girls’ is also in this second part of the album but for these ears The 1975 still have at least one massive card up their sleeve. ‘Robbers’ is an soaring epic track, although ten tracks in, definitely should not be skimmed over. This could be massive.

’12’ provides another break in the collection and these prove to be massively effective. ‘She Way Out’ is an uptempo track which could be elevated to single status. The album closes with Matt Healy’s vocals and a piano on the touching ‘Is there someone to watch over you’, which opens with the line ‘We should ring Dad more’. Autobiographical ? Perhaps and if we apply to all these tracks it can probably explain the emotion and sometimes pain which underlines the indie pop.

A fantastic collection of songs for a debut. People always remember events by music, what song was in the charts, what was on the radio. The 1975 soundtracked my move to London.