The 1975 have returned with their new single, “Part of the Band,” along with the track’s accompanying music video.
Propelled forward by orchestral strings, the song finds frontman Matty Healy waxing nostalgic about past romance as he sings, “And I fell in love with a boy, it was kinda lame/ I was Rimbaud and he was Paul Verlaine in my, my, my imagination.”
Co-produced by Jack Antonoff, the track also features uncredited vocals from Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner. Stream The 1975’s “Part of the Band” below.
“Part of the Band” heralds the coming of The 1975’s fifth studio album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, which is the follow-up to 2020’s oft-delayed Notes on a Conditional Form. The band spent several days in the lead-up to the release teasing the new era on social media, including revealing the lyrics to “Part of the Band” amid several moody, black-and-white snapshots of the quartet, which is rounded out by guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald, and drummer George Daniel.
Last year, Healy and Daniel collaborated with beabadoobee on her 2021 EP Our Extended Play. The project came in the wake of The 1975 being forced to scrap a 2020 tour for which she was supposed to serve as the band’s opener on account of the coronavirus pandemic. In October 2021, Healy made a surprise appearance at a Phoebe Bridgers show in Los Angeles.