The 1975 Brings Some ‘Happiness’ Back For Our 2013 Nostalgia
It was late June when the band of our dreams shared a new photo with the caption: “Your new album. Your new era. Your old friends. The 1975.” The new record, titled Being Funny in a Foreign Language, finds fans spiraling with anticipation for the project due to the tremendously nostalgic taste of recent singles “Part of the Band” and “Happiness.” While The 1975 has been active on their Tik Tok account, posting snippets of their fan-loved music videos such as “Girls,” “Chocolate,” “Sex,” and “Robbers” – fans have been speculating whether The 1975 is bringing back their nostalgic noise from the debut album The 1975 for Being Funny in a Foreign Language.
The album opens with “The 1975,” a well-known and pre-loved song from The 1975’s discography. Following their album rule of opening each project with this song, stands a reminder that this band are our old friends.
The album continues with a heavy and exciting tracklist:
1 - The 1975
2 - Happiness
3 - Looking For Somebody (To Love)
4 - Part of The Band
5 - Oh Caroline
6 - I’m In Love With You
7 - All I Need To Hear
8 - Wintering
9 - Human Too
10 - About You
11 - When We Are Together
As the first few singles dropped at the beginning of the summer season, The 1975 released “I’m In Love With You” on September 1st, 2022. Even though there are only 3 songs released so far for the album, already I can begin to hear a resemblance to their debut album from 2013. I could truly write a whole thesis on the visual aesthetics of The 1975 but instead I think we need to discuss why The 1975 is bringing back this nostalgic sound. With their Instagram coated in black and white photographs of the band with comments on their posts like: “are we getting black n’ white era part.2??” We’re all wondering the same thing. In a weird sense, the way The 1975 have introduced this new album so far, it feels so right. It feels as though they are returning to their home base but with a new-found outlook on life, on their life, and how they saw themselves exactly 10 years ago. Their photos on Instagram promote an intellectual “art-house” visual. It’s both pleasing to the eye yet eerie with silent and numbed energy. Dressed in suit and tie in most of their photos, their image is giving ‘Echo and The Bunnyman’ with a distinct proper English-style.
“A Change of Heart”, a much loved song from The 1975’s second studio album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it causes commotion as the story is continued in their newest single. The protagonists in the music video for “A Change of Heart” find themselves in the middle of a fairground dancing their hearts out. 6 years ago we had this amazing song to dive deep into with incredible visuals to play with. Now, fast forward to 2022, The 1975 returns with a sequel with their new release of “I’m In Love With You”. Their post on Instagram promotes the music video visuals for the song and we see the two protagonists from “A Change of Heart” make a return on screen.
The 1975 builds their music with purpose filled with easter eggs and puzzle pieces that they then fill throughout their career. I feel as though listeners have grown with The 1975. I was only 13 when they dropped their first album. Now being 22, I feel as though I’m seeing flashes of my 13-year-old self listening to this shoegaze, dream-pop, indie-rock sound in my childhood bedroom. Listening to “Happiness” for the first time brought me right back to my childhood senses. It was an unnerving feeling yet I found myself living in comfortable bliss.