The 1975 – Being Funny in a Foreign Language Review

Like it or not, there is a correlation between those with bad music taste and those that find Matt Healy attractive. Being Funny in a Foreign Language is another reminder of that. The 1975 have coasted through on pop mediocrity of an ailing variety for some time and this latest album from Healy and company is no different. As fittingly generic for the broad strokes of whatever “pop rock” has become, The 1975’s latest album is stuffed full of empty, charmless tracks that see Healy attempt to navigate the complexities of life around him, or rather, complexities of the lives around his fans and what they want to hear. It is the most obvious and grating of choices, that Healy adapts his work to that of whatever crowds on TikTok are responding well to. It dates his music immediately.

From the self-titled opening track that sounds closer to a compressed MIDI file from the mid-2000s with lyrics of “making an aesthetic out of not doing well” as though The 1975 were doing well in the first place to the generally vague animosity felt through Healy’s lyrics, it all just comes across as uninteresting. Happiness tries to incorporate loose jazz notes that drag the work of Sam Fender while a funky, empty guitar riff is added to Pop Product 2 of 11 for The 1975. Horribly generic love tracks that Healy’s heart is not behind are frequent. The common denominator. Healy is likely the frontman who understands the expectations of his audience best of all. In turn that makes his music feel artificial and afraid of exploring itself.

It is not enough for an artist to note what is popular and then conform to it. The 1975 are trailing those that have pushed through this year with the “relatable” tracks of lost love. How generic a life it must be. Harry Styles’ influence can be heard on each and every track of this so-called upbeat indie nightmare. Healy’s appearance now replicates Paul McCartney dressed as Ron Mael from Sparks but without the unfashionable facial hair. A smug attitude in its place, one that is reflected so frequently in the lifeless form Being Funny in a Foreign Language takes. It is as mysterious an album title as it is useless. Mystery in the meaningless is different to intrigue in the art. The 1975 have frequently proven themselves as miserably dull artists always behind the curve of creativity. Being Funny in a Foreign Language is no exception, with its generalities as damnable and dull as they are egregious.

At the very core of Being Funny in a Foreign Language is art excelling at nothing. For Healy to decry his band as “the most important of the 20s” is not serious. There is no reasonable mind that could believe that. Whether Healy does believe it or not is a PR tool, a marketing jab for their latest audible mess. He does believe, as Rik Mayall once wrote of himself, that he is “bigger than Hitler, better than Christ”. Whether Healy’s work warrants such a reputation is not just up for debate, but leaning heavily toward outing him as a hack artist with little to offer beyond being in the right place at the right time. Once one track has been played, they all have. Oh Caroline is just the beat from Girls with minor changes. They all are. Audiences love him. Do they love his music? Who could?