The New Album From The 1975, "Being Funny in a Foreign Language", Is Incredible

“Am I ironically woke? The butt of my joke? Or am I just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke calling his ego imagination?” - "Part Of The Band", The 1975

As predicted, The 1975 released their much-awaited album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, last week and it's nothing short of perfect. 

Jack Antonoff, love him or hate him, has managed to once again outdo himself production-wise, and is on a run the likes of which we might not ever see again. 

Together with frontman, and obsessive song-writer Matty Healy, the two kept the band's trademark production characteristics - big booming orchestral sweeps, and snippets of dialogue sprinkled in throughout songs in the background, while at the same time polishing off an entirely new sound for the group. 

The band’s organizing principle this time around, Healy recently told the New York Times, was “‘Play it and record it.’ Real instruments. You can always find something in a computer that can do the job. Let’s just not do that.”

There are epic ballads, and singalongs, all dancing in and out of different decades.

This album is made for radio play and a spotify playlist dedicated to your current, or ex-girlfriend. Which probably means "day one" 1975 fans are going to hate it, but fuck them. This is great music.

On "Looking For Somebody To Love" you get the feeling you've been transported back to the 1980's new wave thanks to the sped-up tempo and funky arrangement.

"Happiness" is as close to a modern pop record as I think we've ever heard from the group. Yet it works perfectly.

“Oh Caroline” feels like its straight out of the 70s.

The album's also got a very rare feature on it, on the the sweeping, and dreamy “About You” . Her voice is beautiful. It's that of Carly Holt, wife of band guitarist Adam Hann.

My favorite record is still the third single, "All I Need To Hear". One of the most beautiful songs I have heard in recent memory.

My only critique. if you can call it that, is that the album is only 45 minutes in run time. 

Give it a listen. You'll be hearing lots of these songs over the next year and seeing this win lots of awards.