The Daily Spin, January 1
The 1975 | Being Funny In A Foreign Language
Hello! Welcome to the first episode of the Daily Spin - my personal challenge to review 365 albums over the 365 days of 2023 - all in 365 words or less. I’m someone who loves music deeply, and so the opportunity to dabble in it on a public platform is never one I’m going to pass up.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: Being Funny In A Foreign Language
Artist: The 1975
Link:
I’ve been a listener of The 1975 since they first came onto my radar in 2013, and four albums later, we’ve arrived at their fifth release, Being Funny In A Foreign Language. It’s got a lot of the sound that makes The 1975 so well-loved by many, myself included, but I found the difference with this album is that it sounds more personable - more human.
The 1975’s projects to this point, particularly their last releases, have been so expansive in scope that it’s really nice to see the band hark back to more personable imagery throughout. The record may be among their friendliest to radio waves, behind the production wizardry of Jack Antonoff, yet underneath the slithery synth-pop is a bubbling current of sincerity that feels a little more honest than previous releases did.
The record itself is all the right things - funky without being overwrought, pulling electronic and indie influences together and intertwining them the way Vampire Weekend, Arkells, and Local Natives have done. It plays to Matty Healy’s vocal strengths, allowing him to do everything he’s shone doing for almost a decade without leaning too far into parody.
I don’t have many critiques, but the record does have a tendency to fall into sameness - something they’re certainly not unique in experiencing, but it undercuts the emphasis on sincerity and a more honest tone when basically everything holds the same small range of emotion.
Rating: 7.7/10
Best Tracks: “Human Too”, “Looking For Somebody (To Love)”
Worst Tracks: “Part Of The Band”