The 1975 - The Sound

Sitting somewhere between a dodgy 90s holiday park cabaret and a game show theme tune, the stabs of synthetic strings and piano that dwarf ‘The Sound’ make ‘Love Me’’s neon excess look like little more than a birthday party. Pitching The 1975 further into their deep-seated pop tendencies than ever before, it’s a saccharine, rot-your-teeth exercise in frivolity.

In true Matthew Healy fashion, there’s a swallowed-thesaurus leading the way, though at least this time the pages admit to being inside a “sycophantic, socratic, pathetic junkie wannabe.” Perhaps a little hard on yourself, there, Matt, but at least if your tongue’s in your cheek you might not trip over it.

That sense of self-reference is what defines ‘The Sound’. Finally embracing their boyband status and running with it, it’s an unashamed throwback to the massive pop of days gone by, relishing in the glitz and glamour that the charts are so sadly devoid of. As the current crop of fancy-haircutted groups of blokes continue to wrestle with guitars in a bid for ‘authenticity’, The 1975 are bathing in glitter.

’I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’ is still an absolutely ridiculous title for an album, and Healy’s tendency to churn out overwrought declarations of artistry where simply slowing down the motor-mouth would do is still grating. Despite all that, though, ‘The Sound’ and its two album-two-teaser siblings illustrate that The 1975 are a band whose pop ethics and waves of influence are as fluid as they come. For better or worse? Still up for debate.