The 1975 Have A New Album Coming Out Next Week, And I Think It Is Going To Be The Album Of The Year
For those familiar with The 1975, they are a band that never stops making music. Led by a legit crazy person, Matty Healy, he not only never stops writing songs for his own band, he also never stops writing songs for his labelmates.
The label, "Dirty Hit", boasts some of the best new, (and my favorite) artists around- Beabadoobee, and Holly Humberstone, especially.
(Healy has recently been in the studio with Beabadoobee again, working on EP Our Extended Play, and collaborated with frequent studio buddy No Rome, and Charli XCX on the single "Spinning". He also recently collaborated with Holly Humberstone, on her track "Please Don’t Leave Just Yet".)
And as if all that wasn't enough, The 1975 also has a side project, named "Drive Like I Do", (the name they used to go by way back in the day), that Healy says has more material coming out as well...
The 1975 have released 4 strong albums since 2013, and this newest one, titled ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ will mark their 5th studio LP in that time.
Just based on the lead-up singles they've released, I truly believe this will be the best album to come from all of 2022.
The first single, "Part Of The Band", had a very Springsteen feel to it. (With more violins. (I'm a huge violin guy))
The second single, "Happiness", was more synth-heavy and reminiscent of their past sound
In an awesome interview with Rolling Stone UK, Healy said that the band's last album, Notes on a Conditional Form, released in 2020, "would mark the end of an era for 1975", and the songs released since certainly prove that to be the case.
Healy continued that this album will forgo the "culture wars" commentary of past records and focus on the universal theme of love. A theme that is in-your-face and undeniable based on the latest two singles. All of which are some of my favorite songs I've heard in quite some time.
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Take for instance "I'm In Love With You"-
Tell me those guitar plucks, in the beginning, don't instantly remind you of Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby"? You can't.
The most recent release, "All I Need to Hear", is a quiet ballad with an electric guitar, piano and strings. Healy sings to the love of his life. This is one of the most beautiful songs I can ever remember hearing. I think this will be a big-time first dance song you hear at weddings over the next 5 years.
That little minx Taylor Swift, a very close friend of the band, actually got to hear the entire album months ago, and loved it. In an interview with Pitchfork, Healy described "after listening to the record, Swift summed it up to Healy by saying “it’s so funny”. Comedian Bo Burnham also had a similar reaction, with the profile noting how Healy “was pleased when Burnham laughed at all the right times” when he listened to the album."
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Critics who have had the chance to preview the album are also in agreement that it's one of the band's most unique, and best. There is supposedly a country-inspired track called "When We Are Together" featuring the hook: “the only time I feel it might get better is when we are together”.
It also helps having the hottest producer in music, Jack Antonoff, overseeing the project. Something Healy was quick to defend, knowing the hipster crowd has turned on Antonoff lately for "selling out" and becoming mainstream. (Typical loser hipsters).
“People may think that it’s ‘uncool’ to work with the biggest producer in the world — I don’t give a fuck,” Healy said about enlisting Antonoff’s services. “I wanna make a great fucking record.
“Jack doesn’t get enlisted by a lot of the best artists because he’s some go-to guy — Jack’s good.”
Beabadoobee has praised The 1975‘s “awesome” new album, saying that “no one’s fucking ready” for how good it is. Which along with what I've heard so far has me hyped to the moon.
So consider this me calling my shot, Being Funny In A Foreign Language will be the album of the year 2022. Book it.
The album drops October 14th.
Here is the (alleged) tracklist
‘The 1975’
‘Happiness’
‘Looking For Somebody (To Love)’
‘Part of the Band’
‘Oh Caroline’
‘I’m In Love With You’
‘All I Need To Hear’
‘Wintering’
‘Human Too’
‘About You’
‘When We Are Together’
You can pre-save it on Apple Music now