The 1975 Are Back with ‘Part Of The Band’
Between September 2013 and now, The 1975 have released four studio albums, all of which have shot straight to #1 with their first two records going platinum too. It’s fair to say the UK loves The 1975. Between releasing their second and third album, it felt as though they “broke America” and began to become more well known and more successful than just a four-piece band from Wilmslow. Once their fourth album was released in 2020 however, it personally felt as though they’d really gone downhill. I’ve written an entire post dedicated to my thoughts and feelings on ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ (you can read it here), but to summarise: it felt as though they got too big, and frontman Matty was letting things get to his head and was slowly becoming too pretentious. The album would hop genres far too much, didn’t flow, sounded disjointed and had far too many tracks. After a personal high point and peak with their sophomore album ‘I Like It When You Sleep’ in 2016, it felt as though a band I’ve loved since being a teenager had finally lost their way.
Nobody even knew whether The 1975 would come back, as Matty teased an ominous “three albums and we’re out” idea before splitting the third album into two under their previous Music For Cars era. They’ve teased a return of a previous incarnation of their band called Drive Like I Do several times, from playing old songs written under that moniker to making an entire Instagram page for it. Matty even posts from time to time saying how the DLID project is “almost done” or “sounding good”. This is all happening between Matty and drummer George working with other artists like No Time and Charli XCX, and Matty appearing solo at a Phoebe Bridgers concert. Nobody knew what The 1975’s next move would be, or if there even would be one.
With any popular and prolific band, there’s always whispers and rumours. I keep up with these using The 1975 subreddit and several Instagram fanpages. One such whisper I saw concerned the band possibly filming a music video on a beach, meaning new music could possibly be near. And it was, when mysterious posters began to appear through London with a “long boi Matty” standing atop a car and in the company of July 7th. These posters were soon replaced by ones showing Matty beside a burnt out, graffitied car and lyrics to a song called ‘Part Of The Band’. My personal favourite piece of information given was when fans received postcards of Matty on the same car, delivered through their door, which was the band’s new unique way of confirming information about their upcoming project. It confirmed the album is eleven songs long, told us what they’re all called, and how their fifth studio album is called ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’. The wait then began to get longer for July 7th to arrive.
If you take each “comeback”/lead single from each The 1975 album (‘Sex’, ‘Love Me’, ‘Give Yourself A Try’ and ‘People’) and compare them against each other, they all sound radically different and individual from one another. One of the most exciting things about waiting for a new The 1975 single is waiting to hear what sound they’re going for this time, because they are able to effortlessly sound so diverse — unless we’re discussing ‘Notes’ which is a case of being too diverse for your own good. I remember conversing with a classmate around the time ‘Love Me’ dropped, with her not accepting their change of sound and style while I was revelling in it (I’m a huge fan of Prince, so it was understandably my favourite for a long time). With the release of ‘Part Of The Band’, we can add a fifth single release to the list of diversity.
In this song they truly sound like they never have before, but to be honest, it’s difficult to describe what is even going on. Another Reddit whisper I saw leading up to July 7th was how Matty had apparently “gone to record a classical record”, which I was in disbelief about and didn’t understand until this single arrived. It definitely sounds classical, with a strong presence of strings — something The 1975 isn’t new to, as they’ve previously worked with a full orchestra on songs like ‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’. When telling a fellow The 1975 fan how I’d describe the sound of it, I opted to compare it to select songs by Jack White III and Beck; ‘Lazaretto’ by Jack White III has a violin solo in it, whereas Beck’s albums like ‘Morning Phase’ and ‘Sea Change’ thrive on a similar sort of sound. And this isn’t a sound I’m opposed to at all. In fact, I think ‘Morning Phase’ is one of the most beautiful album’s I’ve ever heard. Sometimes I feel such a way or in such a mood I need to listen to such soft, mellow, relaxing music like that to help how I feel in the moment.
To hear one of my favourite bands attempt something vaguely similar makes me happy, and excited for the rest of the album. If you take the example of ‘Give Yourself A Try’ being the lead single from ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ though, the majority of songs on that album don’t sound like the lead single at all. It’s incredibly far removed from electronic instrumentals and Siri talking about sex. So despite the sound of ‘Part Of The Band’ being one I love and adore already, it doesn’t mean the rest of the ten tracks on the album will sound exactly like this. But I wouldn’t be mad if they did. A classical The 1975 album makes as much sense as Lorde making the almost all acoustic ‘Solar Power’ last year. Speaking of ‘Solar Power’, I think an interesting point to mention is how ‘Part Of The Band’ has been produced by Jack Antonoff. The same guy who’s produced some of the most popular albums and female artists in Western Music, such as: Taylor Swift, St Vincent, Florence + The Machine, Lana Del Ray and Clairo. I definitely did not have Jack Antonoff producing The 1975 on my 2022 bingo card, but several people have drawn musical comparisons between ‘Part Of The Band’ and the song ‘91’ by Bleachers — the band he’s in. I’m not a Bleachers fan luckily, so this isn’t a problem for me, but I can understand fans of both who think the songs sound too samey.
It isn’t a new The 1975 song if Matty doesn’t reference masturbation and orgasm at least once in the song. In fact, you have all the tropes of a typical The 1975 song as Matty sings about being cancelled, a drug of some sort and name dropping some classical European poets you’ve never heard of; all of this being done in the traditional pretentious way. I think my personal favourite lyrics are the entirety of the third verse, where Matty sings about “tote bag chic baristas” writing about ejaculating and liking his coffee “full of soy milk and so sweet, it won’t offend anybody.” But I feel the song is about reflection in a roundabout way. The outro is full of rhetorical questions Matty could be asking himself, before making a statement to try and prove himself. And the woman who was “part of the air force” could be a woman — real or made up –Matty holds in high regard and is constantly comparing himself to. Being in the air force is national service, where you’re fighting for your country. Is being part of a band the same in any way?
The song came with an accompanying music video too, one various news outlets were telling fans they didn’t want to miss, and I can see why. It revisits their emo roots by being shot entirely in greyscale, but has a mature edge with the entire band being dressed in formal wear. It opens with Matty surrounded by a group of violin players, before a stripped down version of the band giving off Beatles vibes comes in just before the chorus. In the video we see kids graffiti the car, which bears the “la poésie est dans la rue” and rectangle motifs the band has become famous for. We can also see Matty being helped carry a ball around by a group of figures in black, before he’s left carrying a massive sack spewing papers like a hermit — perhaps a visual representation of the entire history of the band or their reputation he now has to carry? Toward the end of the video it descends into what feels like a home movie from the 50’s, something your grandad would show you on his VHS player from when he was 30 and with his best mates. And the music video on the beach rumour proved to also be true, as that’s exactly where the music video is set. Perhaps it’s a more mature, classic and organic version of the ‘A Brief Inquiry’ manifesto photoshoot. No floppy knitted hats, no VR headsets, just violins and the burgeoning weight of your legacy with the boys.
