the 1975

you could straight up drop that 90 second bit of it in a house club

the outro of "change of heart" is so sublime

it's incredible the biggest risks on this record -- "if i believe you", the title track, even "the ballad of me and my brain" if it was longer -- are the ones they pull off flawlessly

yeah I agree w/ that. in general the "safer" bits are the least arresting (though still fine)

you could straight up drop that 90 second bit of it in a house club

― J0rdan S., Thursday, February 25, 2016 4:50 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The shifts on this record can be quite jarring but the drop from that into full bore house-pop of "The Sound" is inspired.

One of the things those jarring stylistic transitions can obscure is that thematically the album charts a fairly straight, unbroken line of ascent/descent from cynical superficiality (songs about being obsessed with your own fame, being addicted to coke) to naive sincerity (songs about your dead grandma and your mother's post-natal depression).

I do kinda wish "Nana" was somewhere in the middle of the record, maybe slotted after "Somebody Else," as a sonic palate cleanser, but that's just my inner tinkerer talking

THE
BALLAD
OF
ME
AND
MY
BRAIN

pitchfork's review is so lame. Brad should've written it, imo.

most of the negative reviews seem pretty dismissive of the ambient bits and completely miss the point of it but oh well

I think it's actually quite well written even though I disagree with a lot of it; laura gets a free pass for life anyway after her evisceration of mark kozelek in the guardian last year

ignoring the score, i agree with a lot in that review!

Like a lot of When you sleep, his lyrics dip perilously from inspiring to embarrassing.

totally otm but also his best trait

Yeah I think Laura's review is really insightful on how so many of The 1975's choices become love/hate propositions, which she can capture pretty well given she is somewhat on the fence. And I think the ambient stuff (even the monumental title track) can only really be notable and loveable if you're already in the tent (I don't get where she's hearing Bon Iver though. The snatches of vocals I suppose), otherwise I can understand why the instinctive reaction would be "if I wanted stuff like this why would I come to this band in the first instance?"

it was snowing this morning & i took the long route to work so i could listen to this all the way thru. v good.

i can't really understand where she hears Autre Ne Veut or Baths or Bon Iver. it's well written, but I disagree with a lot of propositions that are made, like when she says they were "basically inoffensive pop-rock pitched somewhere between Phoenix, the Strokes, and Jimmy Eat World". it's missing the point.

on other hand, now i'm completely in love with 'paris' song.

i don't know if i agree with those musical comparisons (jimmy eat world, certainly) but i think her point is that the hatred directed at this band was never really related to the music they were making at that time.

but rather it has all to do with ppls ongoing obsession with authenticity. her point in the end is also extremely otm:

For Britain's biggest young guitar band to ditch laddy machismo, embrace the boy band ideal, and run on feeling rather than posturing—that feels kind of radical.

but yeah i agree with tim that it's especially cool that she managed to express these points despite the fact she clearly hasn't sipped from the 1975 kool aid like most of us here (myself included)

it's quite a positive review for a 6.5 from pitchfork really

Started listening to this this morning. Made it as far as "The Ballad of Me and My Brain." My favorite song so far is "Love Me," which sounds like INXS covering "Fame" (Bowie, not Irene Cara) with Trevor Horn producing. I like "She's American" a lot too.

The bridge on She's American is one of my favourite moments on this

pitchfork's review is so lame. Brad should've written it, imo.

i would've given it five 10.0s. they made the right choice

laura's review is great in that I can unlock it from the score and it still matches up with a lot of my ideas of what this record does well

That Pitchfork review does echo my sentiment that PC Music really needs to get started on putting together a boy band. I mean it will likely be terrible, but it would also be interesting.

I want whatever machine they used on "Somebody Else" to make him sound exactly like Michael McDonald.

was kinda thinking he sounded a bit like alison moyet even before they turned on the mcdonaldtron

sweet of 'paris' to cover yazoo 'only you' to prove the point

WHERE WOULD I BE IF I WAS MY BRAIN

Disappointed the one called "Please Be Naked" has no lyrics.

never heard anything more beautiful than the title track

A good album whose inclusion of three instrumentals astonishes me.

they're good though

there are three?

anyway if anything they were the moments i knew this record was really stretching out

People seem to keep missing the 30 seconds of vocals on the title track xp

oh alfred what do you think of "this must be my dream"

the melody on 'a change of heart' that sounds like it's played on a kazoo or something cracks me up.

"this must be my dream" isn't one of my favs, "paris" makes up for it tho

75 minutes? this is the sex & the city 2 of albums. someone pls post their preferred edit

every track is essential

this makes me think of 'in ghost colors'

The lyrics of "This Must Be My Dream" are pretty confusing but I'm assuming that the references to "I can't wait for you boy" in the chorus are sung from the perspective of the hypothesised girlfriend, not from Matt to another guy.

(structurally)

better than 'in ghost colors,' though

every track is essential

I could do without the acoustic tracks at the end (though the lyrics to "She Lays Down" are great)

yeah i feel that. those songs are very personal & the album is so generous up to that point that they feel warranted tho.

those two are probably the least essential tracks but I wouldn't say they're inessential with the way the album progresses as Tim had mentioned. I don't really know what else the album could end with except maybe the title track? Normally I'd agree with Simon that a track like Nana would be better somewhere earlier in the album as a palate cleanser but I don't think there's really space for it anywhere else on this.

I love what this band has gotten away with: selling the ILM 2016 conception of good pop.

"nana" is stunning imo in a very similar way to "paris" the latter burying unbelievable animosity in a kind of sweet swaying "only you" facsimile and the former embedding unbelievable grief in a very gentle setting

anyway can't imagine being lukewarm on "this must be my dream," the alexander o'neal jam of the record

oh re: what I said about "Paris" and "nana": not that those concepts are in any way inherently opposed

anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSnAllHtG70

OMG.

The second half of this.