The 1975
I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It

The 1975, a quartet from Cheshire, also arrive at their second (highly anticipated) album after their eponymous debut made quite a splash in the UK three years ago, driven by a couple of good hits, especially “Chocolate.”

As I write about this highly anticipated sophomore work with a lengthy title, "I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It," the guys are vying for number one on the charts both in the United States and Great Britain, a fact that cannot be ignored considering the band, led by Matthew Healy, debuted with their first EP in the not-so-distant 2012.

Preceded by no less than five singles, the new work moves over a range of such numerous and diverse coordinates that the listener risks getting disoriented more than once, especially on the first listens. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, because in the end, the band has good distinctive traits that allow them to maintain a rather coherent stylistic identity throughout (almost) all 17 tracks of the work.

Yes, Healy always plays at being the reincarnation of Michael Hutchence and, yes, sometimes he succeeds well, sometimes less so. But in the fast-paced tracks, the guys put out real numbers: above all "She's American," a delightful blend composed of INXS, Bowie, Peter Gabriel, and Duran Duran that coexist and find a balance that on paper seems frankly impossible. The same can be said of the lead single "Love Me," of "Ugh!" (delightful), and of "The Sound," which I hope aims more at the dancefloor and making a splash in the US charts (which at the moment seems to have succeeded). "This Must Be My Dream," on the other hand, sounds a bit thrown together.

When the tempo slows down, the first (not irreparable in the future) troubles begin, materializing in the R n' B fascinations of "If I Believe You." Elsewhere, however, when even at a slower pace, the eighties thread is picked up again, we find the other single “A Change Of Heart,” which brings everything back onto more pleasant and coherent tracks. The band also shows a fair amount of courage in the instrumental digressions of pieces like "Please Be Naked" (leaning towards ambient) and the title track, and closes in an unusual way a very complex album by genre standards with two acoustic gems, the lo-fi wannabe "Nana" and the touching "She Lays Down."

A rather good sophomore work, this new album by The 1975, which places the band on a rather challenging launching pad. We'll see if in the future the guys manage to definitively refine their stylistic identity and fully convince not only on the commercial terrain but also artistically.

Best track: She’s American