The 1975 – The 1975 [2× Clear Vinyl LP]

The 1975 – The 1975 [2× Clear Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: 2× Vinyl LP, Album, Gatefold, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: DH00042
• Barcode: 602537405152
• Genre: Indie Pop / Synth Pop / Alternative Rock / Electropop
• Label: Dirty Hit / Polydor
• Originally Released: 2 September 2013
• Vinyl Colour: Clear
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

The 1975 is the debut studio album by The 1975 — Matthew "Matty" Healy (vocals, guitar, piano), Adam Hann (guitar), Ross MacDonald (bass) and George Daniel (drums, programming, synthesizer) — released on 2 September 2013 through Dirty Hit and Polydor, and one of the most commercially successful British debut albums of the decade. The band had spent the preceding year releasing four self-recorded EPs — Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars and IV — on their own Dirty Hit label before approaching producer Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg, Foals) to help shape the album recordings. Sessions took place across The Motor Museum in Liverpool (where Crossey had begun his career), Livingston Studios in London and Rose Cottage in Wilmslow between Autumn 2012 and Spring 2013, with Crossey co-producing and mixing the majority of tracks alongside the band. Several of the album's songs had already appeared on the EPs in earlier forms and were re-recorded or reworked for the full-length release, a deliberate continuity that gave the album its unusually cohesive character despite its stylistic range. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number one on 8 September 2013 — the first number one album on Dirty Hit, a label that had been turned down by every major — and has since sold over 791,000 copies in the UK and over one million in the United States.

The album's range of styles is exceptional for a debut: across 16 tracks it moves through synth pop, indie rock, electropop, R&B, funk, emo and 1980s-influenced arena pop, unified throughout by Healy's confessional lyrical approach and the band's instinct for melody. The band described their aesthetic at the time as ranging from "glitchy R&B to big 80s powerpop to mid-90s soul" — a description borne out by the distance between the atmospheric guitar of opener "The 1975" and the funk-inflected "M.O.N.E.Y.", the driving indie rock of "Sex" and the shimmering pop of "Chocolate" and "Girls". The six singles drawn from the album span its breadth: "Chocolate" (number 24 UK) and "Sex" were established fan favourites from the EPs; "The City", "Girls", "Settle Down" and "Robbers" completed a campaign of sustained commercial and radio success. "Robbers" — the album's most emotionally direct track, a two-chord ballad in which Healy's vocal delivery carries almost all of the expressive weight — attracted comparisons to The Smiths and became one of the most celebrated songs in the catalogue. The album's name and the band's name both derive from an inscription Healy found in a book of Jack Kerouac's beat poetry: the date "1 June, The 1975" scrawled in the margin, which the band adopted without knowing what it referred to.

Production across the album is split between two approaches. Crossey's tracks — the majority — draw on his background in electronic pop as much as indie rock, using 100-track Pro Tools sessions with extensive programming and arrangement work; Healy noted that Crossey had a unique ability to harness live band energy within highly produced arrangements without losing the feel of a band playing together. Tracks 7 ("Robbers"), 12 ("12") and 16 ("Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You") were produced by Healy and Daniel alone, without Crossey's involvement, and have a more stripped-back character that provides contrast within the album's sequencing. Mastering was by Robin Schmidt at 24-96 Mastering. Design is by Samüel Johnson, photography by David Drake and Dave Ma, with additional photography throughout by George Daniel himself.

This is the original 2013 pressing on Dirty Hit / Polydor, on 2× clear vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve, manufactured in Germany under exclusive licence to Polydor Ltd., a division of Universal Music Group.

Tracklist

Side A

1. The 1975
2. The City
3. M.O.N.E.Y.
4. Chocolate

Side B

1. Sex
2. Talk!
3. An Encounter
4. Heart Out

Side C

1. Settle Down
2. Robbers
3. Girls
4. 12

Side D

1. She Way Out
2. Menswear
3. Pressure
4. Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You

Credits

• Matthew "Matty" Healy – Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Producer (tracks 7, 12, 16)
• Adam Hann – Guitar
• Ross MacDonald – Bass
• George Daniel – Drums, Programming, Synthesizer, Producer (tracks 7, 12, 16)
• Mike Crossey – Producer, Engineer, Mixer
• Robin Schmidt – Mastering (24-96 Mastering)
• Samüel Johnson – Design
• David Drake – Photography
• Dave Ma – Photography
• Jamie Oborne – Management, A&R
• Label – Dirty Hit / Polydor