REVIEW: THE 1975 - BEING FUNNY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

4/5

Funny Business.

That seventies band are back. Sounding as sweet as '1979' by the Smashing Pumpkins. But this is The 1975. Always, like their iconic, instrumental introductions to their albums. Wimslow's finest last left us with some 'Notes On A Conditional Form' after 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships'. But now 'Being Funny In A Foreign Language' (which is a guidebook I need as an Englishman in Tokyo, Japan, like their bookending tour in the land of the rising sun) could be their best album since their self-titled 2013 debut. Now they've moved away from those 'I Like It When You're Asleep, For You Are So Beautiful, Yet So Unaware', Ken Jeong 'Community' inducing odes (but really it is all so beautiful). Pure pop that will leave you grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Tumble down this rabbit hole of modern mainstream music at its best, and you'll be left dancing on the top of a burnt out car on the beach, like Matty Healy in black and white. Forget a Lionel Richie ceiling, or Toploader moonlighted. Loaded with top-heavy jams, this is it. One of the album of the year contenders in a calendar of pretenders like Chrissie Hynde. This is that 'I'll Stand By You' music like the smash single, simply put, 'I'm In Love With You'. "She's got her broadsheet/Reading down the list of the goin' wrongs (Yeah, yeah, yeah)/I'm getting no sleep/Tossin' and turnin' all night long (Yeah)/Oh, there's somewhere I've (Somewhere I've)/Been meaning to (Meaning to)/Take the conversation (Hold that thought)." Flowers for your morning commute on a love train through the Springsteen same tunnel, covering O'Jays. 'Only The Strong Survive' like a Boss and only love thrives. 'Looking For Somebody (To Love)', will make you feel like kings and Queen's collaborating with George Michael.

Lead 'Part Of The Band' and second single 'Happiness' feel like they've been here for years, heard. So listen, don't call it a comeback. Rocking their peers with their latest ('All I Need To Hear') the '75 get electric from those Lady studios in NYC. Songwriters pen to lips musing, "'Cause I don't need music in my ears/I don't need the crowds and the cheers/Oh, just tell me you love me/'Cause that's all that I need to hear." Devotion singed, sealed and delivered in the wonder like Stevie of single form, looking for a love like matrimony.

But, between beautiful ballads like the touch of 'Human Too' and the 'Wintering' to come, dance-floor broods like 'Oh Caroline', even match the sweetest devotion to that music muse. Apologies to Neil Diamond (ba, da, ba, baaa). But there's nothing as real and raw as the following, "Getting suicidal?/It's honestly not for me/I'm gettin' on my nerves by gettin' on my knees/Getting cucked, I don't need it/The place I want to be is somewhere in your heart/Somewhere guaranteed." There's your inquiry into the modern malaise of modern relationships, right there. No need to be brief. But let's keep it that candidly when we say this is one of this year's deepest and hard hitting pieces of pop art, full stop.

This is 'About You', me, him her. Especially when Healy harmonizes through the harm, "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." "Did you think I have forgotten?" As we "get married in our heads". The fifth album from one of this generation's best bands, dressed like The Beatles, wraps its arms around you in an epic embrace like their principal photography as a group. All culminating on the classic closer 'When We Are Together'. Storytelling in acoustic melancholy, "Our first kiss was Christmas in the Walmart toy department/She said, "I should take you with me when I leave"/We were searchin' New York for a fancy, new apartment/She said, "Central Park is Sea World for trees"" for your infinite sadness. But this is a 'Love' that searches for lead 'Happiness', finding inspiration in Lana Del Rey's light amongst the darkness as they man the boards with this generation's Rubin, Jack Antonoff. All as these young princes find diamonds and pearls in the rough like 'Ruby Tuesday' for your New Music Friday as they roll like stones for their latest licks. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Happiness', 'Oh Caroline', 'I'm In Love With You'.