Review: Music

Barrowland, Glasgow

Jonathan Geddes

THE 1975 were clearly intent on getting full value from their smoke machines. Their on-stage arrival saw the stage covered in fog, with bright lights beaming across. It looked more like a setting for an alien landing, but instead on ambled the foursome from Manchester, with a display that was too down to earth for its own good.

The band themselves, notably singer Matthew Healy, clearly want to be soaring in the sky, and the frontman's every gesture resembled a rock star's audition tape. Their synth-pop has earned chart success, and going by the screams of the crowd it's earned Healy a spot as a teen heartthrob to boot.

Some of their chart charms are less obvious, notably on a bevy of tracks that appeared determined to re-introduce blaring saxophone to the forefront of pop. It slotted in well on the screamingly 80s vibe of Pressure and the teen movie soundtrack of Heart Out, while Settle Down was pop tooled to sleek precision.

Such a crisp grasp of catchy mechanics occurred infrequently, though. For every Chocolate, with it's assured chorus, or the enjoyably dramatic ballad Me, there were a host of lightweight tunes where the band had coughed up a chorus and then not bothered with anything else.

It's music nearly always aiming for the charts, but not good enough to stick in the ear, from the monotonous Talk! and sickly slick M.O.N.E.Y to a version of Menswear only enlivened by the sound going out early on.

Healy teased the crowd about whether to re-start it.

But the night's biggest cheers arrived later when he kicked into the set-closing Sex, an excitable finale to a variable display.