10 Best The 1975 Songs Ranked
4. It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)
From 2018’s A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships comes It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You), a song which, despite its massive sonic contrasts, is in the tradition of Lou Reeds Perfect Day; on first listen a love song, but on repeated listens is evidently about heroin.
There, however, is where the similarities to Perfect Day end, as It’s Not Living is an upbeat, youthful bop, as the kids say.
Classic Healy songwriting tropes show themselves on this track lyrically, such as adoption of pop cultural slang ("I just can’t even") and humour ("Danny says we’re living in a simulation/ But he works in a petrol station - selling petrol"). Still, the Wilmslow-based outfit have always specialised in self-awareness, never going too far with their tropes and general shtick, never becoming a parody of themselves (*cough* Lana Del Ray *cough*).
Standout lyric:
I can't stop sweating or control my feet/ Got a 20 stone monkey that I just can't beat/ I can stage a situation, but I just can't eat/ And there's a feeling, you're replacing embrace / And It's true that/ All I do is sit and think about you