Music

The 1975

SSE Hydro, Glasgow

Jonathan Geddes

three stars

FOR good or for bad, the 1975 are now playing the sort of shows they were clearly built for. Off the back of a chart-topping year in umpteen countries, frontman Matthew Healy clearly relished the experience of thousands of teenagers screaming and hollering excitedly every time the sashaying singer blew a kiss to the camera, which was often.

At times it felt like boy band hysteria, but the stage show itself was accomplished, with particularly impressive use of lighting throughout. It was the songs that proved trickier to warm to, especially over a sprawling setlist. Their more interesting moments occurred when the foursome, aided by various extra musicians, introduced a chart-friendly chorus to more off-kilter ideas, as on the rhythms powering M.O.N.E.Y, a surging She’s American that should soundtrack a teen movie’s credits or the encore’s Chocolate, one of the more skittish arms-aloft anthems ever written.

At other times their steadfast commitment to “Now that’s what I call an 80s pop hit”, which included saxophone solos thrown in amongst the mainly synth-led tunes, grew very tedious. If I Believe You added gospel backing vocals too, but the result was more messy than powerful, while others flipped between indie dullness (Milk, the tinny Girls) to timid melodies that seemed too afraid to ever be less than shiny (A Change of Heart’s melancholy pace, generic sway-a-thon Somebody Else).

Healy’s lyrics strive to be both profound and personal, but it was hard for that personal touch to come across. It was only when the singer took a moment to direct security to a member of the crowd who had fallen over that he moved away from the script, a rare moment of improvisation in this polished but somewhat soulless spectacle.