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a barbed criticism of today’s shallow
celebrity culture. And its video, directed by
“Blurred Lines” maestro Diane Martel, features Healy canoodling with life-size cardboard cutouts of pop stars like Ed Sheeran
and Harry Styles. The social commentary
might be over some viewers’ heads, and
the writer doesn’t mind if people want to
take the song at surface value and just
dance to it instead. This concept became
clear to him once he finally got off tour and
was surrounded by nothing but deathly
quiet, he says. The more he started thinking about the undertaking of a second
album, the scarier the proposition became.
Especially when he added in how much
he’d been objectified by fans. “Then I was
like, ‘Right. Okay. Fuck it. It’s about bold
decisions and it’s about conviction, and the
only way that we’re going to be able to go
on is if we make something that we truly,
truly believe in. I always say that when
you feel personally addressed by an artist,
it’s when they expose themselves so much
that it puts them on a level of humanity
The 1975’s latest single, the justreleased “The Sound,” might be its most
slyly subliminal yet. Beneath its bright,
effervescent New Wave-era medley lurks
some serious darkness, with Healy confronting a nameless girlfriend who can’t
remember his name, doesn’t like his music
much, but is more than willing to sleep
with him simply for the notoriety
involved. Or, as he yelp-croons in the
lyrics, “It’s not about reciprocation, it’s just
all about me/ Sycophantic prophetic
Socratic junkie wannabe.”
“I’m obsessed with Easter eggs and
subtext within these things, so it becomes
like a video game,” Healy explains. “I love
the fact that that you can listen to this new
record at a completely face value and take
from it what you will. But if you’re like, ‘In
the gang,’ you’ll know – there are a lot of
jokes and little ‘in’ references. On this
album, I predictably could have been quite
gnarly, quite bitchy, because that’s what a
lot of second albums are like. But there’s an
acceptance of who I am – a resignation in
that and a comfort in it – as opposed to the
first record, where there was this constant
analysis of my behavior with this disdain
for it and a desire to change it. Now there’s
this sense of knowing, this wisdom, that’s
replaced the hopeful naivety of the first
record. So “A Change of Heart,” for exam-
The 1975
in 2014
with you, and there’s this kind of humility.
And you believe in those artists that you
love, and you believe what they’re saying,
and you believe that they represent a certain part of you. And the only way I could
do that was by being brutally honest and
writing about what I cared about. And by
writing about the fundamentals – what it’s
like to be a person, but through my perspective.”
Another single, “UGH!,” deals with the
topic of drugs like cocaine, which constantly swirl around the hazy, pleasure-seeking
existence of rock and roll. “I’ve accepted
that I’ve got a problem when it comes to
consumption,” says Healy, who recently
was filmed doing bong hits on the street
outside a club. “I’ve just come to terms that
it’s part of my life, and there are certain
behaviors and indulgences that maybe I
can flirt with throughout my life. But there
are also certain drugs that I can’t do, ever
again, because I don’t rea H