THE 1975 Vinyl & CDs

Review: February 2024 saw two levee-breaking live moments by The 1975: here the indie band would return to Manchester for two massive AO Arena dates on 17 and 18 February, riding the rips of their biggest world tour yet. While technically from Wilmslow, the band cut their teeth in Greater Manchester's storied live scene and have always claimed the city as their unofficial hometown. Despite turning the leaf on a string of controversies centred on frontman Matty Healy, that didn't stop them from operating Still At Their Very Best, promising the kind of raucous, genre-blending performance fans expect a decade into their career. Support comes from labelmates The Japanese House, and Healy would later duet with Amber Bain on cult single 'Sunshine Baby.' This LP recording of the live spate distils a thirty-track stack of pristine live redeliveries, and with a monomaniacal arena's roar throughout, we hear a larger-than-life return home for the band.

Review: The 1975 have been marking their last ten years in the game with a series of special releases, tenth anniversary reissues and merchandise as well as some epic main stage performances at the likes of Leeds and Reading. Now they have put together this bumper collection of their greatest singles from over the last 10 years between 2013 and 2023. It comes on five individual 7"s in one boxset with a booklet and has all the tunes in that fans would expect from 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' to 'If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)' via 'Give Yourself A Try.'

Review: The 1975 made plenty of fans happy when they announced a series of 10th anniversary reissues and merchandise on the back of some top main stage performances at the likes of Leeds and Reading. Now art-stars with a global fan base, it is a full decade since their breakout self titled debut, a record full of their signature choruses, magical melodies and soaring grooves that draw on electro-grooves and alt-rock energy, all with plenty of dreamy moments in between to ensure the whole thing plays out like a real story telling album. As it should be. The album debuted at number one on the charts and remains a firm favourite today.

Review: The 1975's last two albums were, by their standards, quite experimental, with the band taking the opportunity that fame and success afforded has afforded them to try their hand at all manner of styles - many of them a bit more overtly dancefloor-centric than diehard fans were expected. There's no such widescreen vision on 'Being Funny in A Foreign Language'; instead, they've gone back to basics and turned in a set of strong, addictive, singalong songs that sounds like radio anthems in the making. For proof, check the glossy AOR synth-pop cheeriness of 'Happiness', the fragile, eyes-closed Americana of 'Part of the Band', the indie power-pop bounce of 'I'm In Love With You' and the sparse, slo-mo, lo-fi fuzz of 'All I Need To Hear'.

Review: There's certainly plenty to talk about here. British chart-topping and stadium-filling enigmas The 1975 return to prove you really can't predict what the troupe will do next, delivering what would be their most divisive and explorative album if it weren't for the fact they command so much loyalty from fans you could be forgiven for thinking dark forces were at play. 'Notes On A Conditional Form' is easily the furthest we've wandered from the formative years of a band that cut teeth doing teen-punk covers, and it's hard not to notice the subtle theme here. From 'Having No Head', which rides on a sharp house groove, through the garage breaks of 'Yeah I Know', low slung dub of 'Shiny Collarbone' and the shoegaze of 'Streaming', it plays out like a celebration of the breadth and diversity of UK pop culture.

Review: That title is an eyebrow-raiser, yet still more surprising about this second album are the chances that cocky, controversial 1975 frontman Matt Healey has been prepared to take with the sound that his band rode to enormous success on via their debut. Certainly this album may largely sound custom-designed for radio airplay, yet within this framework Healey has moved from the guitar band swagger of yore to a more emotionally charged reinvention that throws '80s-style hooks, innovative production trickery and his mixture of chutzpah and charm into the fray to create a vibrant and unexpected art-pop melange.