Fans of indie music from the mid-2000s probably immediately notice something about The 1975’s new album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language: The album-opening track “The 1975” is heavily inspired by the piano part in LCD Soundsystem’s 2007 favorite “All My Friends.” That was very much intentional, as Matty Healy loves the LCD song. In fact, it’s his favorite one of all time.
In a recent interview with NME, he called it “the most reflective, celebratory, present, nostalgic song” and continued, “It’s the best song ever. Especially for guys exactly our age. It’s our song. It’s the cool guys’ ‘Mr. Brightside.’”
Healy previously spoke about The Killers in a 2018 interview, while discussing a critic’s impression of The 1975, saying, “I heard the New York Times podcast led by the main rock guy, an older guy, and he was so concerned with trying to understand [us]. ‘No, no, no! R.E.M. was inspired by this, and then you have the Killers, so the 1975’s rock music is going to be the Killers!’ It’s all these assumptions. The generational divide is so massive now. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a 15-year-old consuming music. I used to be imagine the utopian idea of waking up one morning, looking at your record collection, and genre not existing — this ecstatic, transcendent, spiritual experience. That must be what it’s like to go on Spotify as a younger person now.”