Healy uses his discography as a personal journal to express his innermost thoughts and captures the difficulty of being gray in a black-and-white world. Through his illustrative lyrics, he depicts the irony he perceives today and characterizes his subconsciousness in a wide array of literal poetic justice.
Mr. Serotonin Man, lend me a gram … Keeping a tab on my health, man you’re putting me up on a shelf.
— Paris
Despite the attractive packaging, the lyrics portray a bleak scene: Healy begging his dealer for a hit of heroin. The ludicrousness of this line displays comedic genius that provides satirical entertainment and simultaneously inspires awe at the ingenuity of delivery. Healy also mentions the pressure of expectations laid on him by his loved ones. He includes a negative undertone and implicates his desire to be liberated from unrealistic prospects.
The smell of your hair reminds me of her feet.
— Be My Mistake
At first glance, this seems to be an insulting observation made towards his significant other, and in some ways, that assumption is true. The connotation implies that the emotional connection he has with “her” cannot compare to the superficial relationship he has with “you.”
He suggests that his current relationship is purely physical in further lyrics. While the subject of the song serves as a release, the woman he compares her to bears a deep connection with him emotionally. Hair and feet are two extremities of a person’s scent, and by comparing the two, this metaphor narrates that his current partner’s “best” part could only equal the “worst” part of his previous lover.
Feeling apathetic after scrolling through hell.
— The 1975 (Being Foreign In a Funny Language)
From their most recent album, Healy employs this lyric to articulate his apprehensions about the reality of social media. He dives deep into the issue of desensitization, a consequence of the continuous consumption of distressful content on the internet. He highlights that an open conversation can, on one side, ameliorate the stigma around a subject, but on the other side, also have adverse effects and cause indifference to the topic.
The 1975 continues to evolve in sync with its audience as it embarks on a shared journey of emotional growth. They exhibit the complexity of humanity and establish a unique foundation that keeps their fans on the lookout for further artistic progress.