The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It”

The 1975 – “Love It If We Made It”

Two days ago, the 1975 sent out a press kit (the snail mail way!) that most notably contained the lyrics to their new song “Love It If We Made It.” It’s the second track off the band’s forthcoming release A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships — the first of two new albums the 1975 have on the way — and the lyrics read like a jumbled but fiery stream of consciousness.

Here are the highlights: The band pays tribute to Lil Peep, who died last November at the age of 21, with the lyrics, “Rest in peace Lil Peep/ The poetry is in the streets/ Jesus saves us!/ Modernity has failed us.” Another line worms its way around systemic racism: “Saying controversial things just for the hell of it/ Selling melanin and then/ Suffocate the black men/ Start with misdemeanors and we’ll make a business out of them.”

And last but not least, the Kanye West/Donald Trump/MAGA hat clusterfuck is cited amid grandiose mentions of wealth and war and masturbation. The verse reads, “Tell me something I didn’t know/ Consultation degradation fossil fueling masturbation immigration liberal kitsch kneeling on a pitch/ ‘I moved on her like a bitch!!’/ Excited to be indicted/ Unrequited house with seven pools/ Thank you Kanye, very cool!/War has been incited and guess what you’re all invited.”

The song is out today, and the lyrics speak for themselves. They’re pretty ambitious. I’m really liking the line, “Poison me daddy.” Speaking to Zane Lowe, Matty Healy discussed the track’s lyrics:

When you say though rest in peace Lil’ Peep you were basically making reference to the prescription medication issue or you being more specific.

HEALY: No not at all. I’m saying Rest In Peace Lil Peep. He is very on the nose regardless of what you think of them as artists or people. With XXX and with Lil Peep. The thing that was happening in that movement regardless of what you think of it musically I felt like it was the closest thing that this generation has to a kind of Punk. It definitely felt important, whatever it is. And those two people are dead now just like that. They’re just dead. And I’m saying Rest In Peace Lil Peep. If you want to go and talk about big Pharma and pharmaceutical companies and overprescription of drugs. Yeah of course … of course that’s definitely played a part in it but that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that other points in the song. I’m saying lot of things … I’m saying a lot of individual things but the fact is is that all of these things nuclear they’re radioactive. It’s probably the best place to put it is in a song because you can let it finish and go … OK well I can’t react to a song so I’ll just listen to it again and then see if I get the same reaction is as opposed to like it’s an opinion on Twitter where you can go “hey, fuck you” we will never. It’s not opinionated. It provides what is happening. You know I mean? There’s a couple of dry bits of humor in regards to wordplay but as I think of all of those songs …

Are you talking about the “house with seven pools/ Thank you Kanye very cool”?

HEALY: Yeah I mean that’s kind of funny I’m always going to use the humor as a way to try and kind of put the message across and it’s a weird time to be an artist in 2018 which it is isn’t. It’s weird. Like there’s things that come under such scrutiny and rightfully so. Now we’re amidst so many like important movements you know like the Me Too movement and all of these kind of things. And then you have arguments against the certain things being against freedom of speech and then you have … you know it’s a very, very volatile like cultural discourse is like on a knife edge or times. So anything you do needs to be kind of like double checked and everybody does it up a lot more consultancy in the world. It’s also a wonderful time to be alive. Like where the most more connected than we ever have been. But that means that we’re hyper aware of everything that’s bad because …

Yea, because there are so many more connections.

HEALY: Yeah of course. And if you can … there’s loads of things that are happening you know and you have access to all information you’re going to become more aware of all of the shit you know. That it’s viral and that can attack you. So all of these things are ever present in people’s kind of … whether they’re conscious of it or not. And I think it’s just the modern word. It’s very intense place to be and navigate especially as somebody who’s going [inaudible] or whatever it is, you know however the song starts.

Listen to “Love It If We Made It” below if you dare.

A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is out in October.

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