Dirty Hit Vinyl & CDs

Review: We're certainly not the first people to note that Being Funny In A Foreign Language is a break from the norm for The 1975. One of Britain's biggest and most opinion-splitting stadium acts aren't exactly known for their brevity or scaling back, having opted for song titles that take up far too much space, and often marrying these with mammoth tunes which are part of the reason people either love or don't really care for them.

Enter 2022's addition to the back catalogue. Overall, we've got just over 40-minutes of music here, which divided into 11 tracks means four minutes per song on average. And there's also a distinct lack of big room, at least up against their previous stuff, although there's still nothing subtle about the emotional indie pop here. Overall, then, this may not be the record die harders wanted, but it could well be the LP the band needed.

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'.