Pomegranate Seeds: 4/10

This week The 1975 came out with their long-awaited fifth album “Being Funny In a Foreign Language.” Here were my thoughts on the alternative band’s new album.

There are so many things I dislike about this album, but let’s start at the beginning. Track one was “The 1975” and was not what I expected. Overall, the song was just alright; the instruments and chorus were good but most of the time I couldn’t even hear the singer that well. While at first, I liked it because it wasn’t something I was expecting, it was pretty basic. The next track, “Happiness,” was a good difference from the first and gave major disco vibes, very watered-down disco vibes. I can’t imagine anyone listening to this song; the only place it could go is in an Old Navy commercial.

“Looking For Somebody (To Love)” came next and while not too bad, it gave major 80s vibes, but it wasn’t that good either. This song would also foreshadow what would be a big problem with this album: the instruments overshadow the singing way too much that I can’t even tell what the lead singer, Matthew Healy, is singing. It was also far too long and would have been better if they cut off a minute- or they could have just made a better song.

Starting with track four, “Part of the Band,” is where it becomes hard to find any good in this album. The intro for once focused on Healy’s singing and not the instruments, which means I realized just how bad his singing is. The singing was monotone and there was no emotion, objectively it was just bad. It doesn’t help that the lyrics were also poorly-written and very average (another problem with the entire album). I kept hoping for some sort of emotional change, some sort of improvement to the entire song, but it just kept going and going. It was far too long. It would sound even better if you just took it off the album.

The next several tracks were some of the most average, boring, dull songs I’ve ever listened to. They all ran together and it felt like I was listening to the same song in a few different versions. Is an album really cohesive if it’s just the same song on repeat 11 times?

I had the same few notes for tracks “Oh Caroline,” “I’m In Love With You,” “All I Need To Hear,” and “Wintering”: too long, boring, average, and far too similar. In “Oh Caroline” I could barely tell what Healy was singing because there were just so many instruments and they were so loud! But maybe that was intentional since it’s hard to tell how bad a singer is when you can’t even hear them. “I’m In Love With You” and “All I Need To Hear” are the most typical love songs you will ever listen to; both were very boring, both were far too long, and both were disappointing. “I’m In Love With You” was far too long and it would have been much better if you cut a minute, or two, or cut the whole song.

Track eight, “Wintering,” was extremely basic and was notable for this album as it contained bad singing, bad lyrics, and bad instrumentation. It makes me hope that The 1975 stays indie and unknown because they don’t deserve a big audience. The next track was “Human Too” which was equally as boring and bad. It was giving coffee shop vibes, and the songs in coffee shops are basic, average, and BORING. It was also one of the songs where you can really tell how bad Healy is at singing.

The last track of the album, “When We Are Together,” is a perfect ending for the album as it contains the elements of all the other songs; it’s boring, it’s average, and it is not good. I would have hoped they would do something good for the end of the album but they did not. Although, based on the rest of the album, mediocre is good enough for The 1975. I couldn’t tell what the song was about as Healy was not understandable and everything about the song was basic and exactly like the rest of the album.

Based on this album, The 1975 comes off as a pauper’s version of The Neighbourhood or Twenty One Pilots. All of the songs were way too similar to each other; which might have worked if the music was good, but it wasn’t. I will not believe you if you say you loved this album, and if you do, you have poor taste in music.

“Being Funny In a Foreign Language” was composed of boring songs, basic lyrics, bad singing, and overall mediocre instrumentation. For all of these reasons, it got 4/10 pomegranate seeds. I would not recommend this album to any alternative fans, or any music fans for that matter, and I will not be exploring any more of The 1975’s music.