Cara Jackson
Over a month has passed since The 1975 released their fifth studio album Being Funny In A Foreign Language, and it’s my favorite release of 2022. This year has been full of recycled pop, and though there were some gems, nobody is doing it like The 1975.
Instead of overly witty lyrics like The 1975 is known for, this album is full of melancholic and simple statements that represent the intensity of love and yearning. A song on this album, Oh Caroline and I’m In Love With You, really shows this. Though songs like Part Of The Band, Wintering, and When We Are Together remind listeners of their humorous roots.
The ‘75 often makes fun of postmodern trends and then makes fun of themselves because they fit directly into them. They joke about politics and photos of salads on the internet, even though frontman Matty Healy is notorious for his spam posts of memes on his Instagram stories and his unhinged tweets. I like that they don’t take themselves too seriously because too many celebrities nowadays put on a fake and plastic front. I like seeing personality.
Moving onto favorites and least favorites. The first track, The 1975, which they have a variant of on every album, is a favorite. It’s the perfect introduction to the rest of the record and their best iteration to date. “I’m sorry if you’re livin’ and you’re seventeen” is probably my favorite line from the entire album. I also love Looking For Somebody (To Love), as it discusses a really important issue in our current day and age- school shootings and how Healy, as a British man, doesn’t understand the phenomena.
I also really like the lead single, Part Of The Band, especially in the outro when the whole band comes together while Healy makes fun of himself for being a “average, skinny bloke calling his ego imagination.” I obviously adore I’m In Love with You and Oh Caroline, two I’ve already talked about, because of this newfound territory for the band. All I Need To Hear, About You, Human Too, and When We Are Together are all vulnerable and emotional songs, but only three of them do it well. Human Too is my only skip on the album. It’s boring and it’s forgettable. I can see the vision of what they were going for, but the execution is just not up to the standards this band has created for themselves and I was disappointed.
Jack Anotnoff, who has worked with big names like Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey produced Being Funny. Leaks of demos without his “Bleachers” sound have been posted from random YouTube accounts, and you can really hear the difference. Antonoff took their sound and made it something it isn’t, which doesn’t necessarily make it worse or better, but I personally would’ve liked to hear more of the electro pop / funk rock sound I’m used to. Much like what they’ve channeled hard for their last three albums, “I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It”, “A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships” and “Notes on a Conditional Form”.
In About you, the female voice is sung by The 1975’s Adam Hann's wife, Carly Holt. In a haunting and mournful voice, she sings “There was something about you that now I can't remember / It's the same damn thing that made my heart surrender / And I'll miss you on a train / I'll miss you in the morning / I never know what to think about” and Healy comes back with “I think about you.” Including the guitarist’s wife in this track is my favorite “easter-egg” this whole record. It’s cheesy, it’s meaningful, it’s The 1975.
No matter your opinion on hypocritical criticisms and the open speech of tougher topics, I think Being Funny In A Foreign Language is worth a listen from start to finish.