Love If We Made It
Every musician has that moment in their career where they stop focusing on themselves and expand their attention to other worldly concerns such as emerging social issues. While to some artists, this represents lyrical maturity, others perceive it as a musical evolution, but either way, the outcome has a lasting impression on the audience. Also, the musician emerges energized and renewed, bearing provocative insights and new perspectives concerning their career choices. Love It If We Made It was pivotal music for the group 1975. They released the track in July 2018 from the album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. The song has intense emotions addressing modern socio-political problems across the world. Most of the pop artists have long focused on expressing personal emotional needs and singing about lust, love, self-doubt, and insecurities. Consequently, their music gives the listeners hope for their dreams from a regretful and nostalgic perspective. However, Love It If We Made IT evolves beyond self-reflection; it is a socio-political against then turmoil and turbulence embedded in modern political, economic, and social climate.
Love It If We Made It is another addition to the growing collection of antihate and antiwar music, and it comes as an intense revolt anthem reflecting the band’s perspective of present-day socio-political crisis across the world. The track captures the audience’s innermost tensions and shoves them into the limelight for everyone to reckon with them. The song grows slowly out of silence and hits the listeners over the head from the 24th second as The 1975 burst into a heavy track. Matty Healy, the lead vocalist, has a high-pitched voice as he sings the opening lines “shooting heroin, saying controversial things just for the hell of it.” He is almost shouting, but he holds back to avoid spilling many emotions at one go. As such, Healy presents the listeners with a calm and controlled voice ready to erupt or shutter at any moment.
The track Love It If We Made It is a fitting metaphor reacting to present issues with an emotive weight evident from the singer’s voice as well as the video images. This song is unique from previous tracks by The 1975, who always find favor in global emotions and universal sentiments. Love It If We Made It not only captures the overwhelmingness excellently, it also strains home while permeating these volatile seasons. The song serves as a necessary wake-up call for the group’s younger fans; everyone needs this kick to wake up and make a positive difference in the community. The artists hope that the younger listeners comprehend the track’s meaning and digest its message instead of singing blindly since they love its sound. One can hear Healy sounding hopeful though exasperated as he shares his perseverance desire in the chorus when he sings, “And I’d love it if we made it; yes, I’d love it if we made it.” That heralds a temporary respite before The 1975 delve back into complex matters.
Healy sings, “war has been incited and guess what, you’re all invited,” indicating the band. The 1975 has joined other artists in the fight against social issues through music. They have found a platform to utilize their musical voice and artistic identity to address the most significant issues today. In this case, the group addresses chaos in Washington that is embedded in every aspect of culture courtesy of prejudice, racism, and overt bigotry shown by the inept president. The song video, directed by Adam Powell, captures the band’s messages in provocative graphic details urging the viewers to reconsider their perception of the profoundly fractured sociopolitical climate of the world. The curated scenes showing familiar events from recent times bring Healy’s explicit lyrics to life. These clips depict demonstrations, war, police brutality, the KKK, nuclear testing, demonstrations and protests, Brett Kavanaugh, Kanye West, and Donald Trump, among other modern events and people.
The video flashes before the viewers’ eyes through bright color flashes and quickly and overwhelm the audience. Although the scenes flashing in quick succession might be overwhelming, the audience should not look away. Instead, people have to face and address all these real issues in addition to fixing and healing the world. Love It If We Made It has a vibey and pulsating melody as well as clever lyrics and an intense chorus which indicates The 1975’s deep musical element. The band has a legacy of saying a lot in their music, and this time they hold nothing back as they present a pop track with a goal, begging the world to reconsider itself and improve failure to which no one might make it past 2019.