The 1975's second album 'I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It' is an entire new world: a new sound, a new aesthetic, and (best of all) a whopping 17 new songs to love. But it still retains what many love most about The 1975: lyrics full of meaning and poetry, a daring and risky attitude, and a middle finger raised to the world. Each track carries with it a new story, personal and intimate and raw. Here are the stories 'I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It' carries.
1. The 1975
The night begins silently, and there is a thick fog in the streets of some unnamed, nostalgic city. The people wander quietly waiting for their adventure to start, and when it does, the streetlights burst into song, and the voices of the city come together to create the opening track of I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It.
2. Love Me
It’s your first day in a new city and you’re not quite sure where to eat, so you check Yelp and look at the hot spots. Then you go to Instagram and look up your favorite ‘social media influencers’ to see where they’ve been eating lately. That vegan Mexican place looks awesome, maybe you’ll go there. Your sunglasses look like the rainbow from the outside looking in and when they cover your eyes, you feel invincible, waiting to be photographed by another Humans of Another City wannabe. You’re young, you’re hungry, and you’re searching.
3. UGH!
Let’s get straight to the point: this is about cocaine. It’s the story of addiction that you can’t shake off, a bad compulsive habit that makes you feel fun! and better! and worlds more interesting! than you feel. You’re young, you’re reckless, and you’re not sure where you want to end up so you stay right where you are, asking for spare change.
4. A Change of Heart
The road is long and your car is the only one on the road. There are deserts of space on both sides and you don’t know where you’re going; you only know what you’re leaving behind. There is some kind of heavy weight on your shoulders even after letting go, and you’re wondering when it will go away. You wonder why goodbye feels more like a sad beginning than an ending.
5. She’s American
You just met this person and you’re already on a whirlwind of an adventure with them. You are spinning in the streets or maybe it’s just in your head, it doesn’t really matter, you’re having fun. You know you’re ridiculous and the other person is ridiculous, too, but who cares? Who cares.
6. If I Believe You
Your world has just shattered, crumbled upon itself, and you don’t really know how you ended up in front of a church but here you are: lost. You want to know the answer and you want to grab at the first one you find, but the truth is that you don’t trust yourself to recognize the truth when you see it, not yet. Your shoulders are hunched forward and your back is strained with the effort of holding itself erect. There is nothing insincere about your emptiness.
7. Please Be Naked
The sun is rising, and you are the only one awake in the entire world, you think. There is another person in your bed and you’re hoping, praying, that they’re real. The window is wide open, now, and the light is flooding in. You remember your mother, and how deeply she loved you. You remember your first love, and you smile at the good and you let go of all the bad. The new day begins.
8. Lostmyhead
There is a crowd of people pulsing around you wherever you turn. Your friends are gone, and you consider yelling out their names but you know they won’t hear it over the music. The people do not move even when you push them out of the way, and you end up fighting just to get between two people who are not even talking to each other. You are determined but also overwhelmed, focused but also completely distracted. You’re not tired yet, but you’re getting there. Almost.
9. The Ballad of Me and My Brain
You’re on the rooftop of a building in the city and your hands are gripping the boundary between you and the sky. There is something electric in the air, something that makes you restless and angry. Before you know it, before you can stop yourself, you’re screaming at the sky about everything that makes you feel lonely and it’s only then that you feel whole.
10. Somebody Else
It’s the middle of the night and you are a little drunk, because you just heard the news that they moved on and there is the unspoken without you tacked onto the end of that sentence. You are stung, not because it’s them, but because it’s not you. Your vanity is catching up to you and you are reeling from the reality of being this way, selfish and pathetic and lonely for somebody, anybody besides yourself.
11. Loving Someone
You’re out with your friends but you’ve all scattered, everyone’s scattered, and no one is together. The night is young but you’re old, too old to be doing this again. But you’re also too hopeful to stop trying, looking out into the sea of people for a face that looks like it could one day be familiar.
12. I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
You are dancing with someone with the windows open to let the night air in. They spin and you twirl and you step to the side and they follow you, but you feel like you’re following them. You know and they know that they will be leaving without saying goodbye. There is some kind of beauty in enjoying a moment that you know will end as soon as it’s begun.
13. The Sound
This person feels familiar to you: their touch, their laugh, their scent. It’s the story of two people coming together over and over again, without rhyme and without reason, a hurricane of instinct and boredom. It’s fun and it’s easy, and it’s a little soulless. Still, the motion of falling into each other is as natural as breathing, as loving. It happens with a smile on both of your lips, and it ends that way, too.
14. This Must Be My Dream
You’re falling in love and it won’t last; it never does. Your feet are bare as they run across the pavement towards the end of the tunnel, where everything is bright and alive and new. You’re racing forwards, almost flying, almost there — but not quite.
15. Paris
The only thought you have as you admire the view is that this memory will be a great one. Your eyes are tuned to the beyond, the after, the end. One day, years from now, you will look back and remember this view; all you will be able to recall is the crushing feeling of the present turning to rust before your very eyes.
16. Nana
There are people around as you spill your guts onto the floor, your messy heart falling out of your mouth. You only know how to be vulnerable when there are people around to see, because when you are alone, you don’t feel anything; you make it a point not to. Your eyes are sad and your chest is burdened, but for a moment, you feel free and you forget that these people are watching you cry.
17. She Lays Down
You’re a child, watching the adults in your life fall apart. You are too young to quite understand what breaks people, but you know what it look like. It looks like never getting out of bed, it looks like crying all night long, it looks like cross words and wet sighs. It looks like bottles and cards and empty, hollow cheeks. You watch all of it, and you understand why no one gets out alive. The burdens of the world are too heavy after a certain number of years, you think. But that’s why we have people: to carry it with you.
