The 1975 (album)

The 1975
Studio album by The 1975
Released 2 September 2013
Recorded 2012–13
Studio The Motor Museum, Liverpool[1]
Genre
Length 50:41
Label Dirty Hit, Polydor, Vagrant, Interscope
Producer Mike Crossey, The 1975
The 1975 chronology

IV
(2013)		 The 1975
(2013)
Singles from The 1975
  1. "The City"
    Released: 9 August 2012
  2. "Chocolate"
    Released: 4 March 2013
  3. "Sex"
    Released: 23 August 2013
  4. "Girls"
    Released: 11 November 2013
  5. "Settle Down"
    Released: 24 February 2014
  6. "Robbers"
    Released: 26 May 2014
  7. "Heart Out"
    Released: 18 August 2014[6]

The 1975 is the self-titled debut album by English indie rock band The 1975. It was released on 2 September 2013 through Dirty Hit and Polydor.[7] It was recorded with Arctic Monkeys collaborator Mike Crossey.[8] On 8 September 2013, the album debuted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart.[9]

Recording

In a 2012 interview with Elliot Mitchell of When the Gramophone Rings, The 1975 frontman Matt Healy said the band had a different approach to recording the album than to the EPs: "I think the best albums are ones where every track could be a potential single. Both our EP’s center around a lead track whilst showcasing a wider body of work, whereas we feel the album is lead track after lead track, with all the alternative moments captured in an accessible way." He also said that the album had been "five years in the making, formed through the many different incarnations of the band," and added that it is "drenched in our identity and it’s everything that we are. It does span a lot of genres and depth, but it’s still a coherent piece of work and everything that makes our band our band, personally I would say it’s an ambitious debut record."[1]

On the album content, Healy said: "This recording process has been really fun, as we’ve had a lot of these songs for a while, and to record them in a completely different mindset with a completely different outlook has been really interesting. (...) There album isn’t a haberdashery of past singles and old stuff, it has been focused down into a collective piece of work. There’s tracks on there that people would have heard live, and older tracks that we’ve reworked. This album is a soundtrack to our formative years, so it would be dishonest to not put songs on there that we wrote when we were 21, as we want people to connect to it in the same way that we do." He described the musical style as "pretty experimental, and goes from glitchy R&B to big 80’s powerpop to mid 90’s soul, but it’s done in our way obviously."[1]

Promotion

The lead single from the album, a re-recorded version of the song "Sex", was scheduled to be released on 26 August 2013.[10] The song premiered on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 8 July 2013 as his 'Hottest Record in the World'.[11] A music video for the song was released onto YouTube on 26 July 2013.[12] On 27 August 2013, the song "Settle Down" premiered on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show as part of his 'Album of the Week' segment, and on 29 August 2013 "Girls" became Lowe's 'Hottest Record'.[13]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 67/100[14]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [15]
Absolute Punk 9.5/10[16]
Clash 8/10[17]
Consequence of Sound [18]
Gigwise [19]
The Guardian [20]
The Independent [21]
musicOMH [22]
Pitchfork 5.9/10[23]
Q [24]
Rolling Stone [25]

The 1975 received generally favourable reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 67, based on 17 reviews.[14]

Ashley Clements of Gigwise called the album "Quite possibly the best indie LP of the year."[19] Simon Butcher of Clash magazine rated the album 8/10 and wrote: "It’s a great pop record with plenty of depth (a rare thing) that will prove divisive. Some will dismiss this band in one listen (or none) as the next Owl City, but with years of playing together already, plenty of fans, and lots of songs ready to go, The 1975 will be one overnight success that’ll outlive the critics."[17]

Dave Reynolds of Bearded magazine noticed similarities between the band's and Michael Jackson's story, and wrote that the "unmistakable '80s aesthetic" reflects a homage to Thriller. "A debut album with 16 tracks should never be able to capture and hold a listeners attention, but The 1975 make a damn good stab at it, with a record littered with pop hooks and imagination. MJ would be proud," he concluded.[26]

Q defined The 1975 as "possibly the first band to take influence from The Thompson Twins, China Crisis and the long-lost Frazier Chorus." "That makes them sound gloriously out of kilter, but the truth is that their jittery genre-jumping is impossibly now," the magazine continued. "Best of all, for all their rarely lauded influence, this is a band who sound like nobody else right now. Hugely intriguing," concluded reviewer John Aizlewood, giving the album 3 out of 5 stars rating.[24]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by George Daniel, Matthew Healy, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald. 

Standard edition
No. Title Length
1. "The 1975"   1:19
2. "The City"   3:26
3. "M.O.N.E.Y."   3:36
4. "Chocolate"   3:44
5. "Sex"   3:27
6. "Talk!"   2:47
7. "An Encounter"   1:14
8. "Heart Out"   3:22
9. "Settle Down"   3:59
10. "Robbers"   4:14
11. "Girls"   4:14
12. "12"   1:19
13. "She Way Out"   3:59
14. "Menswear"   3:26
15. "Pressure"   3:41
16. "Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You"   2:54
Total length:
 50:41

Deluxe edition

In addition to the standard version of the album, a double CD deluxe edition was also released, with the second disc containing the band's four EPs: Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars and IV. The iTunes deluxe edition contains additional remixes, making a total of 39 tracks.[27]

Personnel

The 1975
  • Matthew Healy – vocals, guitar, piano, production (tracks 7, 12 and 16)
  • Adam Hann – guitar
  • George Daniel – drums, production (tracks 7, 12 and 16), photography
  • Ross MacDonald – bass guitar
Additional musicians
  • John Waugh - saxophone
Technical personnel
  • The 1975 – production (all tracks except 7, 12 and 16)
  • Mike Crossey – mixing, production (all tracks except 7, 12 and 16), additional programming
  • Mike Spink – engineering
  • Jonathan Gilmore – Pro-Tools engineering, additional programming
  • Robin Schmidt – mastering
  • Samüel Johnson – design
  • David Drake – photography
  • David Ma – photography
  • Jamie Oborne – A&R
  • Debbie McGee - magician's assistance

Charts

Charts (2013–15) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[29] 29
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[30] 60
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[31] 191
German Albums (Official Top 100)[32] 57
Irish Albums (IRMA)[33] 4
Japanese Album Chart (Oricon)[34] 37
New Zealand Albums (Recorded Music NZ)[35] 5
Scottish Albums (OCC)[36] 1
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[37] 100
UK Albums (OCC)[38] 1
US Billboard 200[39] 28
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[40] 7
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[41] 8

Year-end charts

Chart (2014) Position
US Billboard 200[42] 141
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[43] 25
US Alternative Albums (Billboard)[44] 20

Release history

Country Date Format Label
United Kingdom[12] 2 September 2013 Standard, deluxe, LP Dirty Hit/Polydor
United States[12] 3 September 2013 Vagrant Records

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mitchell, Elliot (7 November 2012). "Introducing... The 1975 (Interview)". When the Gramophone Rings. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Gigwise. The 1975 track by track review".
  3. ↑ "Gigwise. The 1975 track by track review".
  4. ↑ "Gigwise. The 1975 track by track review".
  5. ↑ "Consequence of Sound. The 1975 album review".
  6. ↑ Lane, Daniel (18 August 2014). "This Week's New Releases 18-08-2014". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "The 1975 Announce Debut Album And New September 2013 UK Tour Dates". Contactmusic.com. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  8. ↑ "The 1975 reveal new album artwork and tracklisting". NME. 24 June 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  9. ↑ "Chart Archive > Artists > The 1975". The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  10. ↑ "The 1975 Single 'Sex' To Be Lead For Upcoming Debut Album". daystune.com. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  11. ↑ Corner, Lewis (9 July 2013). "The 1975 confirm new single 'Sex' – listen". Digital Spy. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "The 1975 – Sex (Album Version)". YouTube. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  13. ↑ "BBC Radio 1 – Zane Lowe, The 1975 Hottest Record, The 1975". BBC Radio 1. BBC Online. 29 August 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "The 1975 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  15. ↑ Collar, Matt (3 September 2013). "The 1975 – The 1975". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  16. ↑ Gardner, Ryan (2 September 2013). "The 1975 – The 1975 – Album Review". Absolute Punk. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Butcher, Simon (23 August 2013). "The 1975 – The 1975 | Reviews". Clash. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  18. ↑ Levy, Pat (Oct 7, 2013). "Album Review: The 1975 - The 1975". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved Oct 7, 2013.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Clements, Ashley (2 September 2013). "The 1975 – The 1975 (Dirty Hit)". Gigwise. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  20. ↑ Hann, Michael (29 August 2013). "The 1975: The 1975 – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  21. ↑ Gill, Andy (30 August 2013). "Album review: The 1975, The 1975 (Polydor)". The Independent. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  22. ↑ Matusavage, Philip (3 September 2013). "The 1975 – The 1975 | Album Reviews". musicOMH. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  23. ↑ Greene, Jayson (12 September 2013). "The 1975 – The 1975". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Aizlewood, John. Q, October 2013. Record reviews. New releases. The 1975 - The 1975. P.97
  25. ↑ Ganz, Caryn (18 October 2013). "The 1975". Rolling Stone Magazine. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  26. ↑ Reynolds, Dave (29 August 2013). "The 1975: The 1975 (Dirty Hit)". Bearded. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  27. ↑ "The 1975 2CD Album at Universal Music". Universal Music Store. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  28. ↑ "The 1975 (Deluxe Edition) by The 1975". iTunes. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
  29. ↑ "The 1975 – The 1975". Australiancharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  30. ↑ "The 1975 – The 1975" (in German). Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  31. ↑ "The 1975 – The 1975" (in Dutch). Ultratop.be. Hung Medien. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  32. ↑ "The 1975 – The 1975". Officialcharts.de. GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  33. ↑ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 36, 2013". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  34. ↑ "The 1975 – The 1975". Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  35. ↑ "The 1975 – The 1975". Charts.org.nz. Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  36. ↑ "2013-09-14 Top 40 Scottish Albums Archive". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  37. ↑ "The 1975 – The 1975". Swisscharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  38. ↑ "2013-09-14 Top 40 UK Albums Archive". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  39. ↑ "The 1975 Album & Song Chart History" Billboard 200 for The 1975. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  40. ↑ "The 1975 Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Top Alternative Albums for The 1975. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  41. ↑ "The 1975 Album & Song Chart History" Billboard Top Rock Albums for The 1975. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  42. ↑ "Top Billboard 200 Albums: 2014 Year-End Charts". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-01-15.
  43. ↑ "Top Rock Albums: 2014 Year-End Charts". Billboard.
  44. ↑ "Alternative Albums: 2014 Year-End Charts". Billboard. Retrieved 16 January 2015. (subscription required)