I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
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CRITIC REVIEWS
90
What they’ve made is a bold body of work that sounds effortless and odd and sophisticated. What they do next is likely to be stadium-filling and bonkers and brilliant, but it matters little when what they're doing now is so sensational.
83
Healy may get lost in his head, but I Like It… is a delightful, overshare-y trip that celebrates a new era of boundaryless pop. As for that Tumblr rant of a title, they’re forgiven.
80
These songs have strong, familiar features, but they build off of one another; every one of them is full of hyperactive, bats**t detail that makes it immediately attributable to this band alone. Sit through the whole of this Homeric effort — for which the qualification “messy” seems too stern and reductive — and try not to come crawling back.
80
You’re left with an album that fancies itself as a challenging work of art, but turns out to be a collection of fantastic pop songs full of interesting, smart lyrics, but also peppered with self-conscious lunges for a gravitas it doesn’t really need.
80
When a band conquers the charts with a fun but inoffensive debut album, you don’t expect them to return with a 17-track follow-up that tempers pop tunes with swampy post-rock instrumentals and references mental health, religion, addiction, loneliness and fame. But The 1975, whose self-titled debut hit number one in 2013, aren’t concerned with playing it safe.
80
By any standard, it’s an expansive collection, riddled with caution-to-the-wind sonic experiments and bits of alchemical production flourishes. Surprisingly, though, there aren’t any significant misfires here.
80
This is an exhausting and compelling record that’s so fully realised it’s hard to imagine where they’d go from here. Now that it’s already made number one in the UK and America, it will be remembered as one of the most challenging and best records to do so.
75
In the hands of other bands, this slippery focus might feel like genre whiplash or a bait-and-switch. Yet the album coheres shockingly well, thanks to smart sequencing and the vocal progression of frontman Matt Healy
70
Not every moment of I Like It When You Sleep works perfectly, but it’s exhilarating to hear a band stretch past their comfort zone in so many different ways.
70
Given some judicious editing, this could have been a truly great album; as it stands, we'll have to settle for just really, really good.
70
Admittedly, at 17 tracks, I Like It When You Sleep is long. And given the poetic, atmospheric nature of many of the songs, it's somewhat unwieldy in one sitting. Ultimately, however, it's that uncompromising mix of POP (in capitalize letters) and inventive, exploratory musicianship that help make it such a rewarding listen.
70
What these songs share, the pairing of Healy's witty, bratty lyricism with athletic and adventurous musicianship, prove that this band is comfortable moving in all directions at once.
70
The 1975 may well carry themselves like flash-in-the-pan New Romantic wave-riders ... but their second LP details a desire to leave something long-lasting.
65
For Britain's biggest young guitar band to ditch laddy machismo, embrace the boy band ideal, and run on feeling rather than posturing—that feels kind of radical. When you sleep can be far too much, but it's not cynical.
60
The album's rambling, vaguely emo title is a giveaway: Despite opening big, bright and airtight, I Like It When You Sleep ... gets boring-melty during dream-gaze reveries like "Please Be Naked" and "Lostmyhead."
60
The upbeat pop of The 1975’s début remains far less frequent on their return than many would have predicted. This would not be an issue if I Like It… was tighter, but at almost 75 minutes long, it does begin to seriously drag towards its baggy conclusion.
60
When ‘I like it…’ strikes, it delivers defining moments. But that’s not to excuse the bloated, instrumental rush of ‘Please Be Naked’ and ‘Lostmyhead’, tracks that meander instead of offering breathing space from a glammed-up norm.
60
The album ultimately feels like the half-breed cousin of Duran Duran’s druggiest years, re-imagined in light of a millennial pop formula. It sounds like a band shooting for the moon too soon.
60
I like it is a respectable but bloated labor of love that gets in its own way nearly as often as it succeeds. Sometimes less is more.
60
Even though there are intriguing depths behind the 1975’s worship of surfaces, I Like It When You Sleep feels a little like what pop albums used to feel like – the hits, padded out by filler.
58
There’s plenty of filler here, but at least it all works toward trying to inject some humanity back into the world of buzz-worthy pop music.
40
Even as they cop the slinky white funk of INXS and David Bowie on Love Me and aim for an easily romanced demographic with the electro-tinged ballad A Change Of Heart and the anguished The Ballad Of Me And My Brain, they sound suspiciously like dudes too eager to come off as sensitive and edgy.
40
UK pop rock outfit the 1975 returns with the most bloated pop record I've heard so far this year. A few decent tracks on it, tho.
This album might be way more fun if it were twenty-five minutes shorter
Seriously, I'll be honest here: I think that I like it when you give your album a stupid longass title is a really solid pop album that buckles under the weight of its own self-importance and need to be clever. Songs like Somebody Else, The Sound, and UGH! are genuinely good tunes with great production and the album definitely has a strong atmosphere, so it's a shame that the middle of the album just meanders with ... read more
Seriously, I'll be honest here: I think that I like it when you give your album a stupid longass title is a really solid pop album that buckles under the weight of its own self-importance and need to be clever. Songs like Somebody Else, The Sound, and UGH! are genuinely good tunes with great production and the album definitely has a strong atmosphere, so it's a shame that the middle of the album just meanders with ... read more
NME proves once again to be the most hilariously out of touch critic of the year by somehow fabricating a world in which this album is better than blonde (and myriad other subpar to great records). Here they are discussing courtship:
Frank:
"I'll be the boyfriend in your wet dreams tonight
Noses on a rail, little virgin wears the white
You cut your hair but you used to live a blonded life
Wish I was there, wish we'd grown up on the same advice
And our time was right"
The 1975: ... read more
Frank:
"I'll be the boyfriend in your wet dreams tonight
Noses on a rail, little virgin wears the white
You cut your hair but you used to live a blonded life
Wish I was there, wish we'd grown up on the same advice
And our time was right"
The 1975: ... read more
Fantastic, bold, and extremely well done. This album is GREAT. While still sounding good, ILIWYS discusses depression, religion, addiction, fame, and much more. When listening to this record, you truly get dragged into the chaotic minds of The 1975.
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END OF YEAR LISTS
| #1 | / | Dork |
| #1 | / | NME |
| #3 | / | Digital Spy |
| #3 | / | Drowned in Sound |
| #5 | / | SPIN |
| #6 | / | Idolator |
| #7 | / | Clash |
| #8 | / | Billboard |
| #9 | / | Q Magazine |
| #9 | / | The Times / The Sunday Times |
| #10 | / | AOL Entertainment |
| #10 | / | Mashable |
| #10 | / | Variance |
| #17 | / | Diffuser |
| #17 | / | Gigwise |
More Lists
MISC LISTS
| #2 | / | PopMatters (Pop) |
| #24 | / | Complex (First Half) |
| #25 | / | Stereogum (First Half) |
| #161 | / | Pitchfork (2010s) |
| / | NME (First Half) | |
| / | Rolling Stone (First Half) | |
| / | SPIN (First Half) | |
| / | The Guardian (First Half) |
Track List
- The 1975
- Love Me
- UGH!
- A Change of Heart
- She's American
- If I Believe You
- Please Be Naked
- Lostmyhead
- The Ballad of Me and My Brain
- Somebody Else
- Loving Someone
- I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it
- The Sound
- This Must Be My Dream
- Paris
- Nana
- She Lays Down
In Library (95)
Added on: November 7, 2015
