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A wink to camera with The 1975

  • December 4, 2018
  • Popjustice

Matty off The 1975 has a way of describ­ing part/s of his persona. Paraphrasing here, but it basically involves him going, "Look! I'm Jim Morrison!", then imme­di­ately and slightly apo­lo­get­ic­ally going, "Well, I'm not really Jim Morrison, but you know what I mean."

You see it happen on stage quite a lot when the band play live. It's there in the A Change Of Heart lyrics too, with that line about quoting On The Road "like a twat": he gets to reference a seminal Jack Kerouac book, but he knows it's a cliché, and he gets to tell us that he knows it's a cliché, but he still gets to reference it.

And there's a literal wink to camera in The 1975's new video for It's Not Living If It's Not With You, which homages Talking  Heads' Stop Making Sense concert film from many pop lifetimes ago, but throws plenty of new ideas into the mix, too. Like the Jim Morrison idea and the A Change Of Heart lyrics, it's saying: I'm doing a thing, but not really doing a thing, and you know I'm doing a thing but not really doing a thing, and I know you know I'm doing a thing but not really doing a thing, AND you know I know you know I'm doing a thing but not really doing a thing. But also, I'm doing the thing.

The only real flaw in this video is the absence of "selling petrol", a lyrical aside that pushes the song firmly into 10/10 territory and might actually be the one of the best bits not of just this song but of all pop in 2018.

Also, here, for reference, is part of the Talking Heads film.

  • The 1975
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    Congratulations to Charli XCX and Lorde: winners of the 2024 Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize
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    The 2024 Twenty Quid Music Prize: Shortlist
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    The 2023 Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize: Shortlist
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    Fine, let's do a Substack then.
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    The 2022 Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize: shortlist
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    2021 Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize: Laura Mvula wins
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