The 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It (Album Review)
Monday, 29 February 2016
Written by Laura Johnson
It’s been almost three years since the 1975 became unexpected chart darlings with their debut and the intervening period has seen them, led by the loose-lipped Matt Healy, become masters of hype. Their follow up statement is a 17 track album of pure, unabashed pop that peppers its hour-plus running time with tracks as absurdly over the top as its title: ‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’ .
True to the form laid out by album one they open the record with a grandiose introduction called The 1975, before bounding headfirst into Love Me, the lead single. The song sets the unmistakable ‘80s tone that dominates throughout, with Healy’s acid tongue firing a warning to those keen to dismiss this as pop fodder: “We’ve just come to represent a decline in the standards of what we accept.”
That’s not to say that he deals only in scathing self-deprecation. A Change Of Heart showcases a neat line in tongue-in cheek humour, something that becomes an enjoyable recurring theme. “You were coming across as clever, then you lit the wrong end of your cigarette,” he sings, before adding: “I’ve been so worried ‘bout you lately, you look shit and you smell a bit.”
The majority of the record sounds massive, with Healy backed by a cocktail of synths, strings, sax, keys and a choir, which perfectly punctuates If I Believe You, on which he confesses: “I’m broken and bleeding, I’m begging for help...if I’m lost then how can I find myself?” This song, and The Sound, make it clear the 1975 have not wasted the last couple of years, instead honing their sound to favour the pop leanings of their debut, most noticeable on tracks like Chocolate, rather than its indie affectations.
But, with that said, there are also the blips that are to be expected given the album’s unwieldy size, like the instrumental Please Be Naked and sections of the title track, which may exhibit an ability to create soundscapes, but only serve to elongate an already overwrought record. They’re the person who decides to slow a buzzing party down with the mix they made while travelling.
The record closes, as their debut did, with a stripped back acoustic song, She Lays Down, which is a stark contrast to its slickly produced predecessors and a welcome reprieve from the unrelenting dance-inciting pace. The words are also much more intimate: “She just wants to feel something and I don’t think that’s asking for too much.”
‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’ is littered with moments of pop brilliance, but there’s no escaping the fact that the 1975 are following footsteps made 30 years ago. What we have here is a record that could soundtrack Three Men And A Baby and no one would blink.
The 1975 Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon February 29 2016 - LONDON O2 Forum
Fri March 04 2016 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
Sat March 05 2016 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
Mon March 07 2016 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
Tue March 08 2016 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
Wed March 09 2016 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
Sat March 12 2016 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Sun March 13 2016 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Mon March 14 2016 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Tue March 15 2016 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Thu March 17 2016 - GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
Fri March 18 2016 - GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
Sat March 19 2016 - GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
Sun March 20 2016 - GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
Tue March 22 2016 - BIRMINGHAM Barclaycard Arena
Thu March 24 2016 - DUBLIN 3Arena
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