Album Review :: The 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It

The 1975

I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It 

February 26 2016 (Dirty Hit)

7.5/10

Words: Linn Branson

You sort of have to ask yourself why any band would want to saddle themselves with such a pretentious, preposterous, 16 word album title? It may work as a sweet whispering in the ear of a lover, but as the title of your second record? Really?

But that is what Manchester upstarts The 1975 have chosen to do here; on par with their overblown, ostentatious glossy style from Matt Healy's often half-clothed I wannabe a sex god demeanor to their online writing of E V E R Y T H I N G  I N  C A P I T A L S   S P A C E D   A P A R T  W H I C H  I S  B L O O D Y  A N N O Y I N G.

Whether this over-long - 75 minutes' worth of 17 songs: did someone supply a studio form of viagra?  - record does the biz or not may well depend on how you view the band generally. There's no denying they have well-liked the PR machine wheels in the build-up to this release, so if it fails to chart - which is probably unlikely - it will be down to the songs themselves. Matt Healy has previously said, quite modestly, that on this album he's seeking to challenge folk to sit through it, because, presumably, it would be good for their souls as: "It's art. The world needs this album."

'Need' may be subjective: one man's need is another man's can't be arsed, let's not forget. There's a hypnotic instrumental, 'Please Be Naked', there's the poppy, synth-driven 'A Change Of Heart' with the - memorable? - lines: “Was it your breasts from the start? / They played a part,”, and the dreamgaze style of 'Lostmyhead' (we are unsure to which part of the anatomy this pertains). You almost want to slap old Mats with a wet fish and tell him to get over himself. But if you put aside all his posturing and posing, when he turns on the aural charm as on the down-tempo throb of  'Somebody Else' and 'Loving Someone', you can't help but start to crumble.

Elsewhere, the title track - all nearing seven minutes of it - contains some nice keys and sighable harmonies in its textured electronica; the funk-roots lead single 'Love Me', 'She’s American' and 'UGH!' shows another side again, while the 'If I Believe' delves into gospel/soul territory.

'I Like It When You Sleep ...' is, taken overall, a work of several parts, each of which can separately be enjoyed, yawned over, or dismissed entirely.