The fifth studio album from The 1975 is a brilliant opus of endless musical possibilities. When the band set out to record this album, entitled Being Funny in a Foreign Language, in the height of the pandemic with veteran producer Jack Antonoff, the pressure couldn’t be higher on this English rock band to deliver the goods. While Notes on a Conditional Form was a mixed bag of stellar material, paired with some odd song sequencing, and a little too much filler, this album comes in and blows the door off the hinges with its ability to convey a wide range of emotions in an 11-song, concise artistic statement that never overstays its welcome. While listening to the record, you get the feeling that The 1975 were able to hone in on the best parts of their stylistic songwriting and bring forth the best version of themselves. Being Funny in a Foreign Language has all the makings of an album of the year, while still adding plenty of deep references for longtime fans of The 1975.
After a brief introductory song that largely appears to be about Matt Healy’s obsession with his manhood, the band locks into a familiar groove with “Happiness.” It features that familiar sound in the guitar tones that Adam Hann and Healy have perfected over the course of the years, and some of the best vocal takes of Healy’s career to date. He croons on the second verse of, “Her body’s like a modern art / Take it out in front of me / I’ve gotta stop messin’ it up because / I’m feelin’ like I’m messin’ it up / Because I’m callin’ out your name and God help me / ‘Cause oh, I’m never gonna love again, hey / I’m never gonna love again.” Healy’s admission of his faults in his relationships is a showcase of his own vulnerabilities and insecurities that finds him just as human as the rest of us.
”Looking for Somebody (To Love)” is a great continuation of the sound introduced from The 1975 over the years, with some great synths added in. Antonoff’s crisp production really accentuates each lyric on the song, and it oddly enough sounds like something Bleachers could have written, too. The bridge of “Somebody lying on the field / Somebody crying on the phone / Somebody picking up the body of somebody they were getting to know / Maybe we’re lacking in desire / Maybe it’s just all fucked / But the boy with the plan and the gun in his hand was looking for somebody to love,” features some backing hand claps and a frenetic pace to it to paint with wide, vivid colors.
”Part of the Band” follows and was the first taste of the direction The 1975 went for on this record. I really enjoyed the vibe the band was going for here. It’s a mix similar to what Panic! at the Disco were after on their Pretty. Odd. album, paired with some sweeping instrumentation and storytelling from Healy. The band shows great restraint on the choruses of this song by reeling back into the vibe of the track. The best song of the set comes next in the sequencing with “Oh Caroline.” It’s a track largely composed on the piano that is fairly simple in its construction, yet delivered so effortlessly. Healy provides some context into his headspace on the second verse of, “Getting suicidal? / It’s honestly not for me / I’m getting on my nerves by getting on my knees / ‘Getting cucked’, I don’t need it / The place I want to be is somewhere in your heart, somewhere guaranteed.” His vulnerabilities and insecurities continue to be on full display for the world to comment and critique.
The album continues to unfold nicely in the sequencing with the pop bliss of the singles “I’m In Love With You” and the somber piano ballad of “All I Need To Hear.” On the latter, Healy sings cautiously over a faint drum beat from George Daniel by singing, “I get out my records / When you go away / When people are talking / I miss what they say / ‘Cause it all means nothing, my dear / If I can’t be holding you near / So tell me you love me / ‘Cause that’s all that I need to hear.” Healy’s ability to simplify his own wants and needs is a nice encapsulation of life, and its oddly relatable to the times I need to slow the craziness down in my own life.
”Wintering” is a very campfire-esque storytelling type of song that gradually picks up its momentum as it gets going down the path it set out for. While “Human Too” features some faint studio chatter before bleeding away into the jazzy guitar/piano-based song about needing to find human connection in our lives that seem to be dominated by outside distractions like social media. “About You” is a sweeping ballad that is simply gorgeous in its construction and delivery that sounds like something The 1975 had always dreamed of creating, but maybe weren’t in the right stage of their career to make early on. The chorus of, “Do you think I have forgotten? / Do you think I have forgotten? / Do you think I have forgotten about you?” plays out like the closing credits of a love story being satisfyingly fulfilled.
Closing out the set with “When We Are Together” showcases a band growing up gracefully in their collective careers, and still leaves the door wide open with the possibilities of where they can take their music next. It’s been an honor and a privilege to watch this band grow artistically since the early stages of their career, and I could’ve never guessed that this band would be as big as it is today. Being Funny In a Foreign Language may just be the mid-career masterpiece The 1975 set out to make in the first place, and they pull it off without breaking much of a sweat. That painless effort is a very scary indication of just how much better this group of musicians can still become.