Album review: Being Funny In A Foreign Language
As a long-time listener of The 1975, I was cautiously excited when the Spotify notification came up for the release of their new album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language. Because the sound of The 1975 has been known to vary quite a bit from album to album (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse), I approached the album with a careful optimism, not too hopeful that it would exceed any expectations while simultaneously praying that this would not be the album to flop and get The 1975 booted from the classic indie-pop-rock rotation. Pleasantly, my expectations for Being Funny In A Foreign Language were appropriately exceeded.
Characteristic of their experimental sound, Being Funny In A Foreign Language starts off with a musically intuitive and simply labeled track—“The 1975.” The repetition of a simple lyric, “I’m sorry if you’re livin’ and you’re 17,” incites themes of innocence and development that grow beautifully throughout the album in conversations of falling in love, intimacy, and vulnerability in relationships.
There is, however, a component of societal messaging that this opening track seems to get across, similar to the “The 1975” track on their previously most recent album, Notes On A Conditional Form, which set a speech by climate activist Greta Thunberg to music. This song is one of the least popular ones in the album and received backlash due to focusing on politicization rather than the personality that The 1975 typically exhibits.
Despite the slight vagueness of the album’s first song, Being Funny In A Foreign Language stays true to the roots of The 1975’s typical sound in its experimentalism and unique authenticity in lyrics. Songs like “Looking For Somebody (To Love)” show off jazzy-pop brass instrumentation that mirrors some of the greatest strengths of their 2016 album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it—their second most popular album, and one of the albums that contributed most to arguably The 1975’s success. “Oh Caroline,” though one of the less played tracks on the album, exhibits many of the most popular components of The 1975’s start of their musical career.
Though this album is consistent with the successes of The 1975, there is expansion and legitimacy in Being Funny In A Foreign Language that justifies The 1975’s continued popularity. The intimacy and specific personality in this album’s lyricism are absolutely breathtaking, which is exemplified best in my favorite track on the album, “Part Of The Band.” Highlighting the vulnerability of this album’s writing, there are clearer undertones of queerness that the band has been known to sometimes shy away from, indicating an exciting breakthrough in The 1975’s thematic opportunities.
The three most popular songs on the album, “Part Of The Band,” “Happiness,” and “I’m In Love With You” all surround the glowing sweetness of crushes and the start of relationships, circling back to the themes of innocence established in the album’s first track; however, the album represents a more holistic understanding of the ups and downs of relationships in songs like “All I Need To Hear,” a slow and delicate track that emulates the yearning that typically accompanies feelings of romance.
Being Funny In A Foreign Language has the bones of The 1975’s earlier work, skipping over some of the less-successful risks that they took in albums like Notes On A Conditional Form. Employing this foundational experimentation and nuanced and vulnerable ingenuity, this most recent album proves that the musical successes of The 1975 are far from over.