A Decline In The Standards Of What We Accept

The 1975 “Love Me”

One of the negative effects of having made the 1980s survey set is that my tolerance for people saying that some recent music sounds like “the ‘80s” when it does not is very low. This is typically just a lazy way of saying “this sounds like upbeat pop music” or “this has a keyboard on it,” and is almost always something that is written and produced in a very contemporary way. The 1975’s “Love Me” is the rare song from the recent past that genuinely sounds like “the ‘80s” on a structural level – the music could easily pass for mid-‘80s INXS, and there’s a lot of Scritti Politti and Nile Rodgers in it too. But beyond that, Matthew Healy looks and sounds like the second coming of Michael Hutchence, and is the first major rock star in ages to really lean into being overtly sexual and self-objectifying. Healy’s performance in the video for “Love Me” is magnetic and highly entertaining – he’s overflowing with personality, and clearly gets off on preening around in this very cheeky way. There’s a bit of young Robert Smith in his hair and makeup, and a touch of Mick Jagger in his “I’m having a laugh, come party with me” vibe. What’s particularly wonderful about “Love Me” and The 1975 is that as much as it’s all connecting to excellent elements of older music that’s been more or less lost for a few generations, it all still sounds very of this moment. Their aesthetics and concerns are fresh, it’s just the template that’s familiar.

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