Album Review: THE 1975 I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It

Let’s face it, I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It is an absolutely mental title for an album. But in a weird way it works. In some respects, the music on The 1975’s second LP is equally unhinged.

Fully embracing their new-found boyband status, the British four-piece have left behind the scuzzy – and you might say safe – indie sounds of ‘Sex’ and immersed themselves in ’80s pop. It’s a decision that is sure to prove hugely divisive. Borrowing more than a few chapters from the well-thumbed playbooks of Soft Cell (‘A Change Of Heart’), Duran Duran (‘The Sound’) and the Art Of Noise (‘Love Me’), their drastic sonic shift is arguably one of the gutsiest moves in modern music. It all works. But I suspect there’s not enough killer songs on the 17-track opus to make this a classic.

That’s not to say the record won’t sell by the bucketload and win them an even larger tweenage fanbase. The likes of the outrageously retro, John Hughes soundtrack-aping ‘She’s American’ will ensure they keep selling out arenas around the world. Odd ambient efforts (‘Please Be Naked’), and gospel and electro mash-ups (‘If I Believe You’), are interesting detours, while the brace of acoustic songs (‘Nana’, ‘She Lays Down’) are in the featherweight division. Ultimately, this is a fun but flawed collection.

Key Track: ‘She’s American’

Out February 26

6/10