The cliché dictates “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but in the case of the 1975’s highly anticipated sophomore album, doing so wouldn’t be much of a misstep.
The British pop/alt-rock group’s latest effort, at 75 minutes long, is accurately foreshadowed by its clumsy, bloated, and frankly pretentious-sounding title.
I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it is a motley collection of British synth-pop and alt rock that starts off fairly strong and then gets lost somewhere around the midway point, not really regaining its bearings until everyone has already packed up and gone home.
At its best moments, I like it when channels the spirit of late-70s and early ’80s pop music with funky bass lines, catchy synth rhythms, and the occasional lick from an electric guitar.
The airy, ethereal vocals courtesy of frontman Matthew Healy are at times reminiscent of Duran Duran or Michael Jackson, the latter of whom Healy has cited as an inspiration on more than one occasion. These similarities are most noticeable on tracks such as “Love Me,” a bombastic parody of the narcissism that often plagues rock stars, and “UGH,” a paradoxically joyous and bright track about cocaine addiction.
Unfortunately, once you get through the single heavy front half, *I like it when* starts to unravel. The middle of the album is marred by three ambient tracks (“Please Be Naked,” “Lostmyhead,” and the title track) that lack the energy and variety that carried the album to this point. They simply aren’t interesting enough to warrant their four or five minute running times. Two to three minutes of build are brought to an unsatisfying conclusion before listeners are lazily dragged on to the next piece of filler. By the time they emerge on the other side, any enthusiasm that they might have had has eroded to the point where the return to the upbeat, chord-driven jams characteristic of the record’s early stages seems to come out of left field.
The third single, “The Sound,” with its head-bobbing beat and echoing chorus is one of the few successes in the album’s late stages, along with “Paris,” an introspective and melancholic look at addiction and defunct relationships.
I like it when is an album that is ultimately characterized by the 1975’s aspirations of creating something a bit more ambitious than just “the next big pop album,” but it is betrayed by its excessive length and lack of organization. Fans of its previous work will undoubtedly find something to enjoy among the all the confusion, but newcomers might want give this one a pass.
