On a Sunday morning, I’m not usually queuing up to meet one of my favourite bands, The 1975. But there I was outside Shoreditch’s Rough Trade East, ready for an album signing starting at 12pm. 300 fans like me have all purchased a ticket by pre-ordering a copy of Being Funny In A Foreign Language online and let’s face it, we all would have done anyway – The 1975 aren’t massively boosting their sales by signing some albums on a Sunday. It’s a band who care about the people listening to their music, who appreciate that they’re five albums in because of them. I managed to drop my vinyl on the floor right in front of Matty Healy, the band’s frontman, then waffle on to the four of them about how excited I am to see them in Manchester, because as they agreed, Manchester is the best city.
Then I went home to listen to the masterpiece that is their new album. Critics are calling it their best yet – but five albums in, could one of the country’s top bands really still be outdoing themselves, almost ten years into their career?
Being Funny In A Foreign Language consists of only eleven tracks, making it far more streamlined than their previous albums: for the first time, every single track on this album deserves to be on there. Not a single track is worth skipping; it’s what I’ve always wanted from them. Being Funny still opens with a track titled The 1975, like the four albums before it, but instead of an introduction, this is a full-blown atmospheric album track in its own right, getting the album off to the perfect start.
It is followed by Happiness, imbued with that classic 1975 sound reminiscent of The Sound and It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You). It’s fun, you can dance around to it, the guitars and electric piano riffs are scattered across the song creating the musical form of happiness itself. Looking For Somebody (To Love) juxtaposes a fun pop-beat and title that makes it sound like a typical love song with lyrics referencing American gun culture, showcasing Matty’s genius composition skills.
The fourth track, Part Of The Band, was the first single released from the album. It’s the most experimental track, a hangover from Notes On A Conditional Form, and its fragmented nature that initially felt quite jarring has grown on me now that it’s sandwiched within the rest of the album.
Oh Caroline begins with some gorgeous piano flourishes accompanying Matty’s vocals, before drums break into a sing-along chorus. I’m In Love With You was released as a single in September along with their tour dates, so I listened to this for the first time on BBC Radio 1 just after Matty had announced the tour dates live on air, walking on air with excitement about seeing them again. It’s a feel-good that I’m still not bored of, despite listening to it several times a day for two months straight.
All I Need To Hear calms the excitement of the first half of the album right down with a measured ballad: this is going to be a beautifully intimate moment on tour. Wintering is The 1975’s version of a Christmas song with lyrics that almost mimicking Driving Home For Christmas “I get home on the 23rd, drive up on the 23rd”. I love the references to Matty’s family in its lyrics, personal in a different way than tracks about love or existential crises.
Human Too is reminiscent of Be My Mistake from their third album. Its fragile and raw composition mirrors its lyrics, about we’re all humans who make mistakes. About You is one of my favourite songs on the album. Almost five and a half minutes long, Matty describes it as musically a continuation of Robbers, a fan-favourite from their debut. The album is rounded off by When We Are Together, which Matty has described perfectly as like the end of the season of this album, akin to the last episode of a TV season. Reflecting on a breakup, it finishes the album softly with some unforgettable lyrics “I like socks with sandals, she’s morе into scented candles” is definitely now the new “selling petrol”.
What makes this album so remarkable is that it isn’t just a simple collection of eleven songs. Each has so much thought and meaning, explained by Matty in his interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music and by him and George in their recent Tape Notes podcast episode. The album cover, the first of The 1975 to be a photograph featuring Matty himself, is black and white, suggesting a return to their roots. Being Funny is less computerised than the last couple of albums, more reliant on catchy guitar riffs that remind me of the music that led to The 1975 becoming the phenomenon they are today.
I never believed that The 1975 would be able to top their debut album, but with Being Funny In A Foreign Language, they’ve finally gone and done it. As their upcoming tour cheekily yet accurately describes, it really is 1975 “At Their Very Best”, and I can’t wait to hear it live.
