British boyband The 1975 came banging onto the door of everyone's ears with their first album 'The 1975' which was abit of a mixed bag for me as it contained some great songs and some poor ones and it honestly, just seemed abit flat whe compared to knowing what they can do with songs like Chocolate and Sex but on this new album it's clear they have been set loose to create what album they want to create. Frontman Matt Healy boldly claimed that 'The world needs this album' which obviously isn't true but you have to admire the cockiness of the guy, because the music industry needs that type of thing back in it, all the artists are too happy to sit by and not get anyone's bad side at the minute. The singles that were released prior to the album build up a sound that wouldn't seem out of place on an 80's soundtrack and would probably go well over films like Ferris Buellers Day Off (Someone make the parade scene with 'Love Me' please). These singles, though, were brilliant and I was understandably excited for this album due to that. The Sound, UGH!, Love Me and Somebody Else were all excellent in their own right.
The album kicks off with 'The 1975' an extremely strange instrumental which really doesn't fit with the rest of the album and is one of many instrumental breaks throughout the project, but this song feels like more of a transition from the last album rather than a transition into this album. It also doesn't fit particularly well going into the second track of the album Love Me. Love Me is one of my favourite singles of the last year, it;s strong and it's brash, it attacks celebrity culture and it does it over this 80's synth beat that is done so expertly. A fantastic song in it's right. Now, one thing that is completely evident on this album is the inspiration from the 80's with synth induced pop tunes here, there and everywhere this album feels like both a step forward for the band and a step back in time with music. The song If I Believe You is a perfectly orchestrated mess, there are gospel singers, swearing, trumpet solo's and an extremely distinct amount of Britishness in Healy's voice but the culmination of this is 6 minutes of a song that stands out on an extremely lengthy 17 track album. Another thing about this album is the fact that it is alot more introspective than their first with Healy talking about his problems with cocaine and dealing with the many issues in his life that have led to the subject matter of this album, and even though at times his voice can't quite handle what he's trying to do with it (The Ballad of Me and My Brain) you can see through that and see the emotion within it. Not to mention that the beats on this album are perfectly encapsulating as they pull you into this 80's daydream, now who wouldn't want to have lived carefree in the 80's?
My problem with this album comes with songs like Please Be Naked that are purely instrumentals, but synthy non guitar induced ones which just seems ridiculous because these aren't needed at all, they don't add to the album in any sort of way and don't prove any sort of artisticness in the meanwhile. They are songs that most people listening to the album will skip further into the song asking themselves 'When does he start singing' and the answer is he doesn't, just skip the song. But at the end of the day, these take away from an otherwise wholesome project from the band where the songs mix perfectly into one another whilst each one still holding it's own identity as a track, I feel that with this album they finally perfected their image. Congrats boys.
9/10