THE 1975
Review by Dara Yazdani
The music industry is a cruel mistress. One minute you are
the hottest thing since Hot Chip and the next you are fighting it out with The
Pigeon Detectives to get a gig at the Butlins Indie Weekender.
The chart's transitory nature guarantees a never-ending
quest for the next big thing. Right now the current NME darlings are The 1975,
a Manchester
4-piece with a strong aroma of the 80s that permeates their music like a musky
Drakkar Noir.
They have been championed by Zane Lowe, recently sold out
The Bowery in New York
and in a recent poll of Radio 1 listeners their single "Chocolate"
was voted as the best single in the last 5 years. It would be churlish to
compare regular Radio 1 listeners to goldfish so lets just say the buzz this
band are generating is huge.
This furore is not lost on the fans who have come tonight
judging by the chatter outside the venue. There is a reasonable cross section:
some of them old enough to remember the 80's the first time around but mostly
those who have been dropped off by their parents. All are aware that we they
might not be seeing The 1975 in such close proximity if their star continues
its ascent.
Front man Matt Healy comes out to a sea of camera phones and
the pounding drums of opener The City.
Silhouetted by the back and white neon image of their album cover his
grown out Mohawk, stoner chic and skinny frame make him look like a young Jim
Bob from Carter USM.
The 1975 have a knack of drilling home a phrase or a melody
so it becomes ingrained in your psyche. The City overlays an
incessant synth throb with Adam Hann's metronomic guitar loops to a repeated
chorus of "If you wanna find love you know where the city is". Its
life-affirming stuff.
M.O.N.E.Y's irregular rhythms,
percussion and programmed beats make it sound like an unreleased Talking Heads
track. Sonically it's interesting but the lack of a chorus lets it down.
Talk! ups the anty with its funky riffs
and anthemic refrain of "Why do you talk so loud?". The irony is lost
on the couple in front of me who decide to shout to each above the music for
the duration of song.
Head.Cars.Bending is not from the debut
album but from the Music for Cars EP and plays out like a rockier version of
Little Red Corvette using a similar chord progression as its template. The 1975
do use synths and electronica to great effect do give their songs added
dimension, although live the sound is slightly paired back.
In many ways Heart Out distils the
essence of The 1975 in one track. Lyrics such as "Obsessions with rocks and brown and f*cking the whole
town" marry the bands twin preoccupations of sex and drugs
perfectly. Throw in a bass line that borrows the staccato intro from Robert
Tepper's No Easy Way Out, a dash of Buggles and a synth sax solo and they
couldn't make it more 80's if they made it wear shoulder pads and carry a
Filofax.
It's about this time of the evening where Healy complains
about the heat and gets his shirt off and a waft of oestrogen temporally
suffocates the room. Such is his effect
on the ladies its only right that the bubblegum pop of Girls gets an airing. My
favourite song on the album it sunny riff recalls the Pointer Sisters. If they
were to remake Beverly Hills Cop you would find this on the soundtrack.
Matt then unleashes the one song bulldozer of Chocolate. Its
as sweet a pop overload as the name suggests (although its another song about
drugs)and is the main reason why the band are making waves. Tonight it has grown men screaming out its
nursery rhyme chorus.
"Thank you for making this number one Brighton"
If the men get vocal the song literally has girls climbing
the walls as one brave trio attempt and impromptu pole dance on the foot wide
shelf at the side of the stage. Security quickly ushers them down but not
before Healy as had chance to serenade them before leaving the stage.
The devotees know the band have one bullet left in the
chamber and shout them back out for an encore.
"We Want Sex!" is chanted in unison before the group return for their
encore in an explosion of strobe and the thrashing guitars of Sex
"Seen you soon...and if I don't see you have a good
life"
The 1975's tick all the right boxes. They show invention, variety and can deliver
live. Yet despite all these positives
why do I feel that something is missing?
They only thing I can think of are that band lack a degree
of soul. Both in delivery and in content, their music can sound detached and
artificial like some musically proficient 6th formers singing about
their nights out on the town. If they want to be a truly great band they need
to connect with their audience on a deeper level. This I hope will come with
time.
People will always listen harder if they think you have
something worthwhile to say.
Review by Dara Yazdani
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