'Being Funny In a Foreign Language'

For when the vibe is tart, dreamy, and meandering.

'Being Funny In a Foreign Language' -- The Vibe Triangulation

With their usual self-titled intro track, The 1975 establishes ‘Being Funny In a Foreign Language’ as an unmistakably poppy album with an undercurrent of introspective and ponderous lyrics that are expected from the band. Surprisingly, the pop genre is explored across almost the whole album and from different angles. ‘Happiness’ has poppy horns and longing vocals. ‘Looking For Somebody (To Love)’ has poppy 80s synthesizers and manically desperate vocals. The twin songs ‘Oh Caroline’ and ‘I’m In Love With You’ have a poppy and roguish guitar characteristic of The 1975 and a surprising sparkle in the vocals.

In fact, the whole album only has two valleys: ‘All I Need To Hear’ and ‘Human Too.’ While ‘Human Too’ is a little too ponderous and self-absorbed to be precisely enjoyable, ‘All I Need To Hear’ (as well as the final track, ‘When We Are Together’) are pleasantly reminiscent of Nora Jones, with Matty Healy’s soft vocals evoking pillow-talk. ‘About You’ is another soft track amongst all the pop and probably packs the greatest emotional punch of the album – it’s certainly the most authentically vulnerable and least pretentious track.

One of my favorite tunes is ‘Part of the Band,’ the discordant, self-aware, classically The 1975 anchor track. Indulgent, staccato lyrics like this shine through:

“I know some "Vaccinista tote bag chic baristas"

Sitting east on their communista keisters

Writing about their ejaculations

"I like my men like I like my coffee

Full of soy milk and so sweet, it won't offend anybody"

With past albums, The 1975 have used their capacity to create commercially successful bops to sell more artsy misadventures with decidedly less appeal. This tighter album sticks, for the most part, to commercially viable tracks. In a way, you get the sense that they sold out to make this album, and while they might be grappling with losing their souls and perhaps still trying to take themselves too seriously (injecting their philosophizing into what are the weakest moments of the album), the rest of us get to benefit from the outcome.

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$79.00 at Amazon