the 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEP_IpqEEh0

no rome debut album coming out in december, produced by george & bj burton, should have plenty for 1975 fans to enjoy

It was Matty Healy’s sticky earworm of a hook that introduced us to No Rome in 2018. On “Narcissist,” No Rome lays the groundwork, spinning rhymes and stringing together brief reflections on taking acid and alienating himself. Healy’s back-up coos and earnest cry—“I’ve been seeing somebody”—formed a compelling endorsement of this soft-spoken, R&B-influenced Gen Z newcomer. The track, off No Rome’s RIP Indo Hisashi EP, ushered him into the 1975 universe with subtle, polished swagger.

No Rome, born Guendoline Rome Viray Gomez, had been releasing lo-fi tracks on SoundCloud from his hometown of Manila in the Philippines when Healy emailed and invited him to the UK. He signed to Healy’s Dirty Hit label almost immediately; Healy told Zane Lowe that Rome became “a bit of a muse” and that the two shared “parallel” ideas. In 2019, Rome, Healy, and the 1975’s George Daniel drew on that overlapping vision for No Rome’s second EP, the sparkly and brooding Crying in the Pretty Places. This past year, Charli XCX joined the now London-based artist for a one-off single. With his debut LP, It’s All Smiles, No Rome sets out to prove himself as not just a muse or collaborator but a key player in this realm of glossy and emotional left-of-center pop.

Dirty Hit began as a home for the 1975 when no other label wanted them, and it’s grown into a mini pop powerhouse in recent years, signing beabadoobee, Wolf Alice, the Japanese House, and Rina Sawayama. Most of its artists are young, with a shared affinity for slick production, dreamy synths, and the 1990s—a bedroom haze of alt-rock. Excellent albums have come out of the Dirty Hit braintrust, along with some derivative and underwhelming ones. Healy and co. are smart to bet on No Rome and It’s All Smiles gives him a lot to work with: He can croon, sing-rap over a skipping beat, or stretch across an ambient drone. In line with Dirty Hit’s underdog vibe, the album presents an outline for a fresh alternative sound, one that’s undeniably current without relying on major labels or TikTok trends. It’s solid pop with an experimental slant.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/no-rome-its-all-smiles/

Listening now. Along with the beabadoobee EP, these really do seem like extensions of The 1975 in sound and style more so than the other artists on Dirty Hit.

Way too many of these songs sound like full-on 1975 copycats. "I Want U" and "A Place Where Nobody Knows" are pretty good despite being very on the nose.

you make a little hobby out of going to the lobby
to get things that they don't have

and i said "it's cool" and "i was messing" but it's true
yeah it's you! you're the one that makes me feel right
i've been in love with her for ages
and i can't seem to get it right
i fell in love with her in stages
my! whole! life!

you get a moment when you feel alright
you get a moment when you feel alright
you get a moment when you feel alright
you get a moment when you feel alright

I FEEL SO SEEN AND I CAN'T DREAM
SLEEPING TERRIFIES ME OTHERWISE I'M FINE
SEE-SAW BACK AND FORTH, BACK ON THE DOOR, BACK ON THE FLOOR
OH PLEASE IGNORE ME I'M JUST FEELING SORRY FOR MYSELF
FEELING LIKE SOMEONE, LIKE SOMEBODY ELSE, WHO DON'T FEEL THEMSELF
PAYING FOR THEIR WEALTH WITH THEIR MENTAL HEALTH
I'D LIKE TO MEET MYSELF AND SWAP CLOTHES
I THINK THERE'S SOME PLACE I SHOULD GO
I THINK THERE'S SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW

whewwwwww

LIFE
feels like there's SOOOOOMETHING missing
maybe it's YOU

yeah i mean some of the melodies seem like obvious healy ghostwriting. which ... is not necessarily a bad thing

the album is decent but fairly slight, he seems capable of something better than this

that was my thought as well. on a conceptual level i just didn’t really get it at all

they deleted their social media accounts let’s goooooo

:)

if we are to believe 1975 fan accounts, the single and/or album is going to be called "The Problem Attic", which i am begging Matty to call/be about anything else

i mean, that title is deeply on brand but still, please

I'm super excited for new 1975, but so over the PR move of completely wiping social media every time a new album is imminent (not that such a move is unique to these guys). It'd be nice to still be able to scroll back through previous updates.

choosing to believe that's a goof title until proven otherwise

it will be incredible

i'm with k3v

so excited for this

Not everyone's convinced that's the title:

https://www.reddit.com/r/the1975/comments/ssgumy/he_changed_his_bio_the_problem_attic_is_totally/

to be fair this band has never had anything even resembling a good album title

if they actually named it that it would be the beginning of their flop era. earlier album titles aren't so basic x cringe as that

are their social media hiatuses usually this long, i thought they're usually only for like 24 hours

ok you guys can come back now

Nothing?

I’ve decided that today is the day that they must release new music

what if this is their way of announcing their breakup and all that footage of them in the studio is from years ago

THEY’RE BACK LFGGGGG

took them long enough

oh single isn't until 7 july boooo long build-ups to singles are the worst

i think word is the album is expected in october?

but I want it now

my boys <3

Your new album. Your new era. Your old friends.
The 1975https://t.co/Tk3FMU5HLb pic.twitter.com/hY5kCLK2e5

— The 1975 (@the1975) June 1, 2022

this is where im at these days

i think that "i think there's something you should know" might be the best song they've ever done

― ufo, Thursday, August 20, 2020 3:39 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

huh

i listened to NOACF a few times last week and it’s just an astonishing album, bowls me over every single time

the trajectory of critical opinion on them is so weird. mass skepticism and/or ambivalence thru the first two albums that finally flips the other way right as they make their worst and kinda most openly troll-y album (thinking of “love it if we made it,” “tootime,” the robot song). then they’re dropped into “yeah we don’t really care about these guys anymore, been there done that” post-overexposure purgatory — overexposure driven by the same editors writers etc who previously ignored them — right as they make easily one of the best pop albums of the last 10 years

completely agree

the critical response to ABIIOR seemed to largely be a belated realisation that actually ILIWYS was worth taking seriously and shouldn't have just been rejected out of hand because the debut made them seem like a shallow obnoxious pop band (not true but i do understand how that was an easy surface-level takeaway) + they were being 'topical' with stuff like "love it if we made it" which helped get more on board

NOACF backlash was fairly understandable since it was such a long, messy and fairly unapproachable album - i love it but even i think the sequencing is a disaster so i can understand why people who only just got on board were put off.

but i'd put ABIIOR above the debut still & wouldn't say it's "troll-y"? idk

they're teasing that the first single is "being funny in a foreign language"

What about if you think, "Except for the first album, they've always recorded uneven albums and I wish we lived in an era when greatest hits still sold?"?

part of the problem!

I like the (mild) unevenness. It's a feature, not a bug.

I agree.

ILM got them from the start (and they’ve changed less than the general critical line on them would suggest). And they’re a group I will always associate with ILM and my sense of my taste in music and my interactions here being so inextricably intertwined that I can probably never disentangle how much of my experience is this band has been shaped by over two decades of this message board.

<3 tim <3

they uploaded all their albums to apple music in dolby atmos (apple's highest quality audio). i had fun bopping around the albums listening to some of the songs, the productions do sound richer

The 1975 - Part Of The Band. 7 Julyhttps://t.co/tmjlHBzB3r pic.twitter.com/5YvJQ6KSgI

— The 1975 (@the1975) June 13, 2022

that middle stretch on NOACF, jesus

ILM got them from the start (and they’ve changed less than the general critical line on them would suggest). And they’re a group I will always associate with ILM and my sense of my taste in music and my interactions here being so inextricably intertwined that I can probably never disentangle how much of my experience is this band has been shaped by over two decades of this message board.

― Tim F, Thursday, June 2, 2022 3:20 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

i don't spend time on ILM anymore but i still come to this particular thread whenever 1975 drops an album/single/promo biz. i post very infrequently but always come back and read because this board does so thoroughly understand the exact things i love about this band. like, these are literally my exact thoughts on their critical reputation:

the critical response to ABIIOR seemed to largely be a belated realisation that actually ILIWYS was worth taking seriously and shouldn't have just been rejected out of hand because the debut made them seem like a shallow obnoxious pop band (not true but i do understand how that was an easy surface-level takeaway) + they were being 'topical' with stuff like "love it if we made it" which helped get more on board

― ufo, Wednesday, June 1, 2022 8:14 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

i'm still consistently surprised with how few people i'm around (late 20s - early 40s) have even *heard* of them, even adventurous music listeners / people who listen to a lot of pop music. can't wait to see them in concert again, i hope even when they tour this new album they fill the set with a lot of NOACF stuff. feels like a long shot but i have a fantasy of getting the fuck down with an arena full of people to "Having No Head".

i'm listening to the beabadoobee EP as i write this. bye ~

they're definitely a big cult fanbase act rather than really having much of a mainstream presence and their relationship with the indie rock press etc. has been mixed so it's not that surprising to me

To what extent is Dirty Hit to blame for their relative obscurity? Wolf Alice and Rina Sawayama also seem to be underappreciated by the mainstream, though the latter could have her breakout this year.