Tuesday, June 5, 2018

"Give Yourself A Try" (Single) - The 1975

After a countdown that started at the beginning of May, The 1975 have finally released the first single to their much anticipated follow up album, currently titled A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, which the band announced is scheduled to be released in October of this year. They also announced that they would be releasing another album in May of 2019, titled Notes On The Conditional Form, which they explained is not meant as a double album but all part of the same era, dubbed "Music For Cars".

The single, titled "Give Yourself A Try", immediately sets the tone for this new era as being pointedly different from the majority of the last album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. The song begins with a more electronic sounding beat, and some feedback noises that cumulate in the guitar riff that continues for the majority of the song. It's gritty; almost a bit messy, unlike the clean and smooth tones of their last album, but still manages to be bright and poppy at the same time. The production on the track feels different, lending itself more towards being noisy and less of a crisp, super-high production quality. Matty Healy's vocals come in soon after, serving as contrast to the instrumental's noise with the slight set of effects applied to his voice (echo and pitch correction, if I'm correct). The highest point of contrast is the chorus, where the instrumental seems to peak in terms of the amount of distortion and Healy's vocals sweep over the track as he sings "Won't you give yourself a try?" again and again. 

The song is catchy as hell. It's obviously upbeat, with lots of bright tones despite the overall distortion and grittiness. However, there's an ever so slight sense of melancholy, perhaps a tinge of emo, that seeps through the whole song. A big part of that is the lyrics, which are one of the more intriguing aspects of the track and keeps me coming back time after time. The line that first caught my attention (for a few reasons) is in the second verse:

"I found a grey hair in one of my zoots
Like context in a modern debate I just took it out".

For those unfamiliar (as was I; I had to look this up), the term "zoot" is slang for a joint. I swore that they were saying "suit", which in my mind makes more sense; oh well. The line as a whole, though, is so simple yet absolutely relatable and true. I think about that line a lot now whenever I'm on social media sites, reading through stories and people's thoughts. It's so easy for people to take what they want from a story or source, and use it completely out of it's context to supplement their own argument or point. 

The third verse is also spectacular as a whole:

"'And what would you say to your younger self?'
Growing a beard's quite hard
And whiskey never starts to taste nice
And you'll make a lot of money, and it's funny
'Cause you'll move somewhere sunny and get addicted to drugs
And spend obscene amounts on fucking seeds and beans online"

The whole song touches a lot on dealing with the changes of growing up and dealing with the changes of adulthood, but this verse felt particularly relatable. The more I grow up, the more I find things I wish I could tell myself when I was younger; especially when it comes to this notion that growing up and being an adult makes everything better. As I've discovered and am constantly learning, that is not quite the case - being an adult has it's perks, no doubt about that, but it also has it's own pitfalls and struggles. I think the last part of the verse really exemplifies that notion, with making a lot of money (which people automatically assume means your problems go away) but usually just results in a different, more specific set of issues. I also just really liked the second and third line; as someone who is working on the beard thing and hasn't quite learned to like whiskey, I can laugh a little and know that other people my age feel the same. 

I absolutely love this song. I wasn't sure what to expect with this new album(s), but this song shows me that The 1975 will continue to be one of my favorite groups, and that I get to grow up with them in this new era. 

Rating: 5/5

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