"The 1975" | |
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Song by the 1975 | |
from the album Notes on a Conditional Form | |
Released | 24 July 2019 |
Recorded | June 2019 |
Genre | |
Length | 4:55 |
Label | Dirty Hit |
Composer(s) | |
Lyricist(s) |
|
Producer(s) | |
Visualizer | |
"The 1975" on YouTube |
"The 1975" is a 2019 song [lower-alpha 1] by the English band of the same name from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form . It was released on 24 July 2019, and included on the album as the opening track in May 2020. It continues the tradition of the band's albums opening with an eponymous song, but whereas the previous three had a shared set of lyrics sung by Matty Healy, the 2019 song uses different lyrics delivered by the environmental activist Greta Thunberg. She calls for civil disobedience in response to climate change, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in a modified version of her speech "Our House Is on Fire" from the 2019 World Economic Forum.
The song was recorded in June 2019. Proceeds went to the grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion and the song's release coincided with measures by the band to reduce their environmental impact. When touring in 2019 and 2020, prior to COVID-19 lockdowns, the band opened their encore with "The 1975". The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics, who praised its emotional impact, the message and the transition on Notes on a Conditional Form from the song into the lead single "People".
"The 1975" features the Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who began missing school on Fridays in August 2018 to protest outside the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) with a sign reading "Skolstrejk för klimatet" ("School strike for the climate"). In November 2018, this sparked a global movement of climate strikes. [1] Aged 16 at the time of the song's release, she was the first featured artist on a recording by the 1975; the band had previously criticised that guest appearances in music were primarily intended to improve chart positioning. [2] [3]
The song was produced under the label Dirty Hit, which was founded by the 1975's manager Jamie Oborne. [2] According to Oborne, the lead vocalist Matty Healy wanted to use his platform to highlight other voices, and named Thunberg as the "most important person in the world". [4] Healy later said that the band wanted to make "the most modern statement" on the opening track, and that he wanted Thunberg—whom he considered "the voice of this generation"—to be documented in pop culture and recorded on vinyl. [5] [6] After Oborne failed to contact Thunberg via Instagram, his publicist introduced him to the environmental editor of The Guardian , who put him in contact with her father Svante Thunberg. [4] [7] Thunberg recorded "The 1975" in Stockholm, Sweden, in late June 2019, as the band were travelling through Sweden to play at festivals. [2] [4] Oborne and Healy stated that more influential artists than them turned down an opportunity to work with Thunberg. [8] [7] Greta Thunberg said of the track, her first musical work, that she appreciated the ability to reach "a broad new audience in a new way". [2] Healy said that meeting Thunberg was "such an inspiration" and that she was "the most punk, the most badass person" he had ever met. [9] [10]
The band's first three albums begin with a brief self-titled song with the same set of lyrics about oral sex, beginning "Go down / Soft sound", sung by Healy. [11] [12] The musical styles of each version set the tone for that album. [13] On Notes on a Conditional Form , the opening song deviates from the standard set of lyrics. [11] Lasting 4 minutes and 57 seconds, "The 1975" is a protest song and a work of ambient music, where Thunberg delivers a spoken word performance. [9] [14] [15] [16]
The lyrics call for civil disobedience to bring about reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in response to climate change, based on the January 2019 speech "Our House Is on Fire", which Thunberg delivered at the World Economic Forum. [9] [17] [18] Thunberg opens: "We are right now in the beginning of a climate and ecological crisis". [19] She warns that humans are failing to solve the problem, and outlines the consequences of such a failure, but says that it is not too late to change. She says that the rules in place need to be changed and urges rebellion. [20] [21] Thunberg's tone is calm throughout. [20] [22] In the background, minimal ambient music plays, including piano and string instrumentation. [3] [13] According to Healy, they considered a version with no backing music, but they chose to include it to add emotion and make the listener "transported to a different place". [10] [23] He said that "the blend of the music and her truth is the ultimate combination". [10]
"The 1975" marks a shift by the band to more explicitly political messages. [19] It follows political songs from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships , such as "Love It If We Made It"—about contemporary political events—and "I Like America & America Likes Me"—about American gun control. [24] Healy described the song as superficially beautiful but also sad and ominous. [5]
"The 1975" is the opening song on the 1975's fourth album, Notes on a Conditional Form. [8] Healy initially said that the band were choosing between three songs to release on 31 May 2019 as the lead single of the album. [25] However, "The 1975" was the first song to be released, on 24 July 2019, and the lead single "People" debuted on 22 August. [lower-alpha 1] [10] [27] As they have done for previous releases, the band deactivated their social media accounts shortly before the publishing of "The 1975". [10] [30] [31] The band initially intended not to release "The 1975" prior to the album, but after its recording, they decided to do so. Oborne said that the song "just wasn't a statement that could wait" and that holding it back would have made it feel like a "vanity exercise". [8]
At the time of its release, the 1975 were alternating between touring and working on Notes on a Conditional Form, and "The 1975" was one of four songs that were complete or close to complete, alongside "The Birthday Party", "Frail State of Mind" and "People". [32] Al Horner of The Daily Telegraph observed that the Conservative politician Theresa Villiers—who previously voted against initiatives to limit carbon emissions—became the UK Environment Secretary on the day of the release. [19] According to Oborne, shortly before the release he was contacted by an unusual number of tabloids, and following it they began to run fabricated stories about Healy's relationship and drug usage. [33] The Conservative politician David TC Davies—who has made incorrect claims about climate change in Parliament—called the band hypocritical for their upcoming tour, due to its carbon emission cost. [34] [35] Oborne said in May 2020 that he was still surprised by the "hate and negativity" that Healy received over the collaboration, describing him as "a bit weary of being that guy who fights for the underdog and gets a lot of abuse". [36]
At Thunberg's request, proceeds from "The 1975" were donated to the grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion. [2] Spokespeople from Extinction Rebellion praised the track, saying that "music has the power to break through barriers". [8] [37] [38] A BBC journalist noted that the band were scheduled to tour a wide number of countries, flying by plane, at the time of the song's release. [17] However, contemporaneously with the song's debut, the record label and band announced measures to reduce their environmental impact, [8] [2] [39] such as substitution of plastic materials by paper. [40] The band had also hired an eco-management company for performances. [41]
The 1975 played recordings of the song to open the band's encore throughout performances in 2019 and 2020. Healy would return to the stage alone and turn his back to the audience as it played. [42] [43] Such performances included some touring for A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, [42] the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2019, [44] the BB&T Pavilion in New Jersey in November 2019, [45] and shows at the Manchester Arena and London O2 Arena during February 2020. [46] [47] Liverpool Echo reported that one audience were told to be quiet for the song. [48] The COVID-19 pandemic led to disruption of planned appearances following Notes on a Conditional Form's release, such as an event at London's Finsbury Park in July 2020, where the 1975 planned to implement a number of environmental measures. [49] [50]
On 27 July 2019, Consequence of Sound named the song their favourite of the week. Sean Lang from the publication approved that Healy let Thunberg give the speech, rather than trying to deliver the message himself, and lauded Thunberg for her communication of a difficult message. [51] Relatedly, Laura Snapes from The Guardian praised the 1975 for using their platform to highlight a woman's voice, and Horner said the music was "careful to never overpower or distract" from Thunberg. [19] [3] Claire Biddles of The Line of Best Fit commented that the "introspective and coy" background music complemented the weight of Thunberg's speech. [52] However, New Statesman 's Ellen Peirson-Hagger panned a perceived lack of involvement by the band in their own song, both in its composition and in acting upon its message. [39] A writer for the BBC viewed the song as light on concrete suggestions, but direct on messaging. [17]
Jake Kerridge of The Daily Telegraph praised it as the "most terrifying" spoken word pop music since the 1984 anti-nuclear war song "Two Tribes", by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. [16] GQ 's Olive Pometsy called the recording "a wake-up call", saying that people need to work together to sustain the planet's habitability. [21] Lang called the song a "surprising, refreshing risk", while Horner found the track inspiring and "brutally, rebelliously stark". [51] [19] Lizzie Manno of Paste believed it made an "unwavering case for radical change". [20] A number of critics felt emotional when listening to the song, including Dillon Eastoe of Gigwise , who had to "pull over and cry" upon first hearing it in the car, and Madison Feller of Elle , who got chills from the song. [53] [54] Mitch Mosk of Atwood Magazine and The Big Issue 's Malcolm Jack found it stirring. [22] [55]
The recording also received positive commentary in context as the opening song on Notes on a Conditional Form. Several critics enjoyed the transition between "The 1975" and the punk rock song "People", including Claire Shaffer of Rolling Stone and Manno; Insider 's Callie Ahlgrim lauded that "the effect is exquisite". [15] [20] [56] Writing for Insider, Courteney Larocca praised that it quickly distinguishes the album from the 1975's previous releases. [15] The SLUG Magazine writer Paige Zuckerman found it "a more mature, evolved iteration" of the 1975's lead tracks, but Manno questioned what purpose it served on the album. [20] [57] At the Reading and Leeds Festivals, the song was followed by "Love It If We Made It"; Adam White of The Independent found this continuation to bring "greater potency" to "The 1975". [58]
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes [59] and Pitchfork . [60]
The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in Wilmslow in 2002. The band consists of Matty Healy, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald (bass), and George Daniel. The name of the band was inspired by a page of scribblings found in Healy's copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac that was dated "1 June, The 1975".
"Chocolate" is a song by English rock band the 1975. The song was originally recorded by the band for their third extended play, Music for Cars, where it appears as the second track, and later appeared as the fourth track on their self-titled debut.
"She's American" is a song by English band the 1975 from their second studio album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016). The song was written by Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Mike Crossey handled the production alongside Daniel and Healy. The song was released on 4 November 2016 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the sixth single from the album. Healy was inspired by the interplay between the British and Americans, creating a tongue-in-cheek song about the subtleties involved in a British rockstar courting an American woman. Containing a 1980s-style beat, futuristic synths and a saxophone solo, it is a retro funk, pop and synth-pop song with elements of disco, yacht rock and synth-funk.
"Loving Someone" is a song by English band the 1975 from their second studio album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016). The song was written by Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Mike Crossey handled the production alongside Daniel and Healy. It was released on 3 February 2017 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the seventh and final single from the album. Daniel developed the song's production and title during a jam session, using a chopped vocal stem, while Healy created the lyrics after completing the band's track "Paris".
A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is the third studio album by English band the 1975. It was released on 30 November 2018 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records. Initially titled Music for Cars, the album was intended as the follow-up to I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016). The term later denoted an era encompassing both their third album and Notes on a Conditional Form, released in 2020. The band halted recording of the first part after lead singer Matty Healy left for a drug rehabilitation clinic in Barbados, seeking treatment for his heroin addiction. Following the singer's return, the band spent several months completing the album in Northamptonshire and Los Angeles.
"Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while Daniel and Healy handled the song's production. It was released on 2 April 2020 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the fifth single from the album. The song features guest vocals from singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers. Healy re-wrote the song several times, focusing on the prison–industrial complex and the religious oppression of young people, while the final version was created as a patchwork from each iteration. After meeting Bridgers, the band invited her to record vocals for the song, turning it into a duet.
Notes on a Conditional Form is the fourth studio album by English band the 1975. It was released on 22 May 2020 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records. Initially titled Music for Cars, the album was intended as the follow-up to I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016). It later came to denote an era spanning two albums. The first, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, was released in November 2018. The band recorded much of the second album in London, Los Angeles, Sydney, Northamptonshire and in a mobile studio on their tour bus. The album faced several delays and was submitted only weeks before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
"Love It If We Made It" is a song by English band the 1975 from their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018). The song was written by Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while the production was handled by the former two. It was released on 19 July 2018 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the second single from the album. Daniel created the song's production in 2015, while Healy collected daily tabloid headlines from 2016 to 2018 to use as lyrics. They became too humorous, so he rewrote the song to summarize the volatile social and political events in that period, using Prince's "Sign o' the Times" as an inspiration.
"I Like America & America Likes Me" is a song by English band the 1975 from their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while Daniel and Healy handled the production. Guendoline Rome Viray Gomez provides the background vocals. The song was created as a homage to SoundCloud rap, while the title is a reference to an art performance by Joseph Beuys, titled I Like America and America Likes Me.
"The Birthday Party" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was released on 19 February 2020 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the fourth single from the album. It was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while production of the song was handled by Daniel and Healy. Contributions are featured from Bob Reynolds, who plays the alto and tenor saxophone, and Rashawn Ross, who plays the trumpet and flugelhorn. The brass arrangements were composed by John Waugh, who performs the saxophone alongside Reynolds and Ross. The song originated from a jam session in Los Angeles, California, and was intended to be released as the lead single from the album, ultimately being replaced by "People" (2019).
"Frail State of Mind" is a song by English band the 1975. It was released on 24 October 2019 through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the second single, following "People" (2019), from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). It was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while Daniel and Healy were responsible for the song's production. "Frail State of Mind" is an experimental UK garage and electronica ballad. Its ambient production is composed of a brisk dubstep beat, a heavy, shuffling drum line, cascading synths, chopped vocal melodies, and influences from a variety of electronic, modern rock, and electronic dance music subgenres. Lyrically, the single revolves around Healy's social anxiety and the themes of depression, fear, apprehensiveness, disappointment, insecurity, and anti-social behaviour.
"People" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was released on 22 August 2019, through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the lead single from the album. It was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Production of the song was handled by Daniel and Healy alongside Jonathan Gilmore. An anarcho-punk and screamo song, it features an intense, heavy rock instrumentation consisting of desert-rock guitar riffs, straightforward chords, breakneck drums and "renegade" percussion. Lyrically, it is a protest song that calls for change and rebellion to deal with global, political and environmental turmoil, and deals with themes of desperation, urgency and anxiety.
"Me & You Together Song" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was released on 16 January 2020 through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the third single from the album. It was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Production of the song was handled by Daniel and Healy alongside Jonathan Gilmore. Inspired by Amy Watson, Chelsea Pollard and the idealism of a teenage romance, Healy conceived the song as part of the soundtrack to German, a film he planned on creating. Although the film did not come to fruition, the 1975 continued to work on the song, channeling the sound of their former band Drive Like I Do.
"Guys" is a song by English band the 1975. It was released on 13 May 2020 through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as an exclusive the seventh and final single from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Production of the track was handled by Daniel and Healy alongside Jonathan Gilmore. "Guys" is a mid-tempo indie rock and pop rock ballad that celebrates the band's nearly two decades of friendship, described by Healy as an ode to platonic love and an answer song to "Girls" (2013).
"Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while the production was handled by Daniel and Healy. The London Community Gospel Choir provide the song's choir vocals. Its creation was inspired by J Dilla and self-reflection, with the band wanting to fulfill their responsibilities as artists by challenging ideas.
"Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald alongside Guendoline Viray Rome Gomez and Hiroshi Sato. Daniel and Healy handled the production of the song. It originated from an a cappella sample, with the band gradually merging different pieces of music together to create the final version. Healy was inspired by the Backstreet Boys, producer Max Martin and rapper Kanye West, along with the melodic music of Brandy, Whitney Houston, SWV and TLC.
"If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form (2020). The song was released on 23 April 2020 through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the sixth single from the album. It was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. Production of the song was handled by Daniel and Healy alongside Jonathan Gilmore. FKA Twigs provides operatic background vocals on the song's ambient new-age introduction, Rashawn Ross performs the trumpet and flugelhorn in the choruses, and Bob Reynolds performs the tenor and alto saxophone solo in the bridge. Videos of the band performing the song were widely circulated on social media several months prior to its official release, quickly becoming a fan-favourite, and resulting in a high degree of anticipation among their fanbase.
Matthew Timothy Healy is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of indie art pop band the 1975. He is recognised for his lyricism, musical eclecticism, provocative onstage persona characterised as performance art, and influence on indie pop music.
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