Album Review: The 1975, Being Funny In A Foreign Language

They’ve garnered accolades, divided opinion, weathered Twitter storms, and expanded the boundaries of their sound – and now, The 1975 are back, with Being Funny In A Foreign Language. The new LP finds the most buzzed-about band in the world teaming up with the most buzzed-about producer, Jack Antonoff, to present their most concentrated effort yet, with a track-list half the length of its predecessor, 2020’s sprawling, 22-track album Notes On A Conditional Form.

While the musical leaps on Notes… occasionally felt like scrolling wildly through the internet, Being Funny… finds The 1975 fine-tuning their eclectic approach, attempting to grasp onto a full-bodied, live sound. That’s not to say they’ve settled down, of course – their penchant for the ‘80s, complete with synths and saxs, has continued to grow, and as the album progresses, they swing from the pounding pop of ‘I’m In Love With You’ to the gorgeously country-tinged ‘All I Need To Hear’. Elsewhere, you’ll find nods to LCD Soundsystem, and an indie-folk closing track, ‘When We Are Together’, that could have been penned and sung by Phoebe Bridgers.

Lyrically, few artists tap into the tone of their generation quite like Matty Healy. His observationalist, devastatingly self-aware lines about the state of the world and the people in it have become notably more nuanced with age: “Am I ironically woke?/ The butt of my joke?” But there’s also a feeling that the band have less to prove this time around, and this combination of nonchalance and unapologetic earnestness shapes a considerable chunk of the album. As such, Being Funny… offers the closest thing you’ll find to a definitive snapshot of The 1975: multifaceted, self-analytical, occasionally hyperactive, but through it all, disarmingly sincere.

7/10