Review: 1975 - Latest Single

A partial, return to a slightly less processed sound: a look at 1975's latest single 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME', taken from forthcoming new album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.

The 1975’s latest single from their forthcoming album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME,' kicks off with an audible start-up tone, revving itself up so as to find the energy to reach the peaks of its own infectiously upbeat heights. It carries on through, uncharacteristically for the 1975, traditional song structure as a disco-tinged, dancehall-evoking, art-pop song. It shines and glitters and pulses along with programmed drums and sparkly keyboards while Matty Healy sings one side of an argument that follows an accusation of cheating. Healy brings up the other person's own 'two-timing' ("Think we need to rewind, you text that boy sometimes") in response to the allegations, and, with an Instagram-referencing line ("She said that I, I should have liked it/ I told her "I only use it sometimes"), it stands out as, so far, the song that most seems to fit the upcoming album's title. 'Give Yourself A Try,' the first single released in the lead-up to the album, could easily be received as a response to social media’s – and the internet’s – warping of self-image and expectations with photoshop and fakery pervading everything. In turn, the follow-up, 'Love It If We Made It' comments on some of the most important and most discussed issues and events on the internet. 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME,' however, is the song that most explicitly concerns itself with relationships as they work now in the age of social media and the internet. In keeping with Healy’s comments that this would be 1975's most stylistically diverse record yet, describing it as ranging “from Auto-Tuned house to blue-eyed soul, art-rock to the Great American Songbook”, 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME' stands well apart from the other two singles. Where 'Give Yourself A Try' was a guitar-driven return to the band's roots and sound of their eponymous debut, and where follow-up 'Love It If We Made It' was an aggressively bass-driven about-face that touched on Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, immigration, war, and the trappings and failings of modern life,’ TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME' sounds like the most dance-y possible cut from the band's second album I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it. Talking to Annie Mac on her BBC Radio 1 show, “The Hottest Record in the World,” Healy singled the song out as being the most fun on the record. This sense of fun permeates throughout the song and shines through in the song’s accompanying vertical visual, which was published on Spotify with the song's release. In it, a hugely diverse cast of teens and young adults sing along and dance about in front of brightly-coloured-coded studio walls, as singer Matty Healy ducks his way in and out of the shots. Cast through a tweet from the 1975’s management company, asking for fans who wanted to be in a video, the shots run through a gorgeous representation of the youth of today, full of joy and celebrated in amongst all their differences: physically, visually, and emotionally. ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ is the most accessible single yet from the band’s upcoming release. It's juxtaposition when presented alongside the other two singles presents an exciting possibility for the upcoming release. Fans of the band’s debut will no doubt be pleased by the, at least partial, return to a slightly less processed sound, and fans of the second album will appreciate the more sheeny, glitzy, tracks. ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ itself is just a great example of a fun track that manages to be a little more important and interesting than it’s beat lets on.