"Loving Someone" is a song by English band

the 1975 The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in Wilmslow, Cheshire, in 2002. The band consists of Matty Healy (lead vocals, guitar, primary songwriter), Adam Hann (lead guitar), Ross MacDonald (bass), and George Daniel (drums, primary produ ...

from their second studio album, ''

I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It ''I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It'' (stylised in sentence case) is the second studio album by English band the 1975, released on 26 February 2016 through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records, Polydor. In 2014, fro ...

'' (2016). The song was written by

Matty Healy Matthew Timothy Healy (born 8 April 1989) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the pop rock band the 1975. He is recognised for his Lyricist, lyricism, Eclecticism in music, ...

George Daniel George Bedford Daniel is a British drummer, record producer, DJ and electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the rock band the 1975, as part of which he released five albums that topped the UK Albums Chart. His songwriting and ...

, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald.

Mike Crossey Mike Crossey (born 1979) is a Northern Irish record producer, songwriter, and mixing engineer. He produced the debut single by Arctic Monkeys, collaborating with them over two albums. He is known for his ongoing relationship with The 1975, in a ...

handled the production alongside Daniel and Healy. It was released on 3 February 2017 by

Dirty Hit Dirty Hit Limited is a British independent record label founded in February 2010 by Jamie Oborne, Chuck Waite, Brian Smith, and former England national football team, England footballer Ugo Ehiogu. Based in London since 2009, it has expanded op ...

and

Polydor Records Polydor Limited, also known as Polydor Records, is a British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in ...

as the seventh and final single from the album. Daniel developed the song's production and title during a

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ...

, using a chopped vocal

stem Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

, while Healy created the lyrics after completing the band's track "Paris". An R&B song, "Loving Someone" has an

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

production that incorporates elements of

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

folktronica Folktronica is a genre of indie electronic music comprising various elements of folk music and electronica, often featuring uses of acoustic instruments—especially stringed instruments—deploying hip hop, electronic or dance rhythms, and ...

and Brit soul. Healy sings and raps the lyrics, which serve as a commentary centred on

youth culture Youth culture refers to the societal norms of children, adolescents, and young adults. Specifically, it comprises the processes and symbolic systems that are shared by the youth and are distinct from those of adults in the community. An emphasis ...

, in a

mockney Mockney (a portmanteau of " mock" and "cockney") is an affected accent and form of speech in imitation of cockney or working-class London speech, or a person with such an accent. A stereotypical mockney speaker comes from an upper-middle-class b ...

style. The song implores listeners to critically think about fame while focusing on themes of conditional love and

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

. Upon release, the song received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Reviewers highlighted its production quality and

dark humour Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

. An accompanying music video, filmed live at

the O2 Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as The O2, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of The O2 entertainment district on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London, England. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the third-highest seat ...

, was released on 20 January 2017. The visual features footage of the band performing, close-ups of the individual members and fans in the crowd. To promote "Loving Someone", the 1975 performed the song on tour and at various music festivals, including the

Bunbury Music Festival The Bunbury Music Festival was a three-day music festival in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, at Sawyer Point Park & Yeatman's Cove on the banks of the Ohio River. Each annual event typically featured over 100 acts performing on three to six se ...

and the

Hangout Music Festival The Hangout Music Festival (commonly referred to as Hangout Fest or Hangout) is an annual three-day music festival held on the white sand beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama. The main stages are the Hangout Stage and the Surf Stage (located on opposit ...

. Healy dedicated the song to the

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

community as well as black, Muslim and liberal Americans. The singer gave several speeches prior to the band's performances, including ones criticising

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

and the

2016 US presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and ...

results. Healy was involved in a controversial kiss with a male fan in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

during a performance of the song, prompting him to apologise for endangering the individual due to the strict anti-LGBTQ laws in the United Arab Emirates.

Background and development

In an interview with ''Coup de Main'', the 1975's drummer and producer George Daniel told Shahlin Graves that "Loving Someone" went through several iterations. He allegedly began creating the song by "just messing around" as if he were attempting to write a piece of

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

. The producer used an old

of lead singer

's voice and chopped up the syllables before inputting the notes, a process he compared to "essentially just jamming using stems". Daniel continued to drag and rhythmically chop the stem, ensuring it was developed in the proper key. Once a succinct part was created thereafter, he combined it with a "really simple melody" that he wanted before finding the proper notes and beginning work on the lyrics. There were no words in the syllables used in the finalised stem, but phonetically the sample sounded like the phrase "loving someone", so the 1975 developed the lyrics around that. Speaking with '' Dork''s Ali Shutler, Healy revealed that "Loving Someone" was inspired by the line "Hey kids, we’re all just the same. What a shame", from fellow album track "Paris". The singer said that the former song helped create "the whole glue of the knowledge of us all being a witness to this madness".

Music and lyrics

Musically, "Loving Someone" is an R&B song with a length of four minutes and twenty seconds (4:20). The song was written by band members Daniel, Healy, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald, while the production was handled by the former two alongside

. The track's

production is composed of an insistent

drum beat A drum beat or drum pattern is a rhythmic pattern, or repeated rhythm establishing the meter and groove through the pulse and subdivision, played on drum kits and other percussion instruments. As such a "beat" consists of multiple drum strokes ...

, "floating"

synthesiser A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s and influences of

and Brit soul. Healy's vocal delivery is a mixture of singing and rapping in a

style. "Loving Someone" is both a social and political commentary that focuses on modern

, using

to explore themes of conditional love and

. The song begins with a high-pitched voice singing the

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeated in poetry or in music">poetry.html" ;"title="Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeat ...

: "You should be loving someone / Yeah, you should be loving someone." Healy urges the listener to think critically about fame while deriding the integrity of celebrities for lacking meaningfulness, as well as an obsession with using sex to sell. Elsewhere, Healy quotes French

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

situationist

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

when singing "I'm the Greek economy of cashing intellectual cheques", referencing the Greek economic crash while comparing it to how he is not as smart as he presents himself to be.

Release and reception

"Loving Someone" was officially released by

and

as the seventh and final single from ''I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It'', added to

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

's C List on 3 February 2017. 1000 physical

vinyl single Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

s were given to ticket holders as compensation for a cancelled New Slang performance, containing fellow album track "Somebody Else" as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

. Deeming "Loving Someone" the best song on the album, Rachel Hunt of ''

The Diamondback ''The Diamondback'' is an independent student newspaper associated with the University of Maryland, College Park. It began in 1910 as ''The Triangle'' and became known as ''The Diamondback'' in 1921. ''The Diamondback'' was initially published a ...

'' praised the song's "catchy" rhythm, chorus, "witty" lines and dark humour. ''Euphoria Magazine'' writer Celia Cummiskey called the song a natural sonic progression from the 1975's "M.O.N.E.Y." Writing for '' Drowned in Sound'', Sean Adams called the track "incredible" and said it "borrows a bit of

Alt-J Alt-J (stylised as alt-J, real name Δ) are an English indie rock band formed in 2007 in Leeds. Their lineup includes Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Thom Sonny Green (drums), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals), and formerly Gwil Sainsbury ...

's slumber-pop template and does a bit of rummaging through

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Sign o' the Times ''Sign o' the Times'' (often stylized as ''Sign "☮︎" the Times'') is the ninth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was first released on March 31, 1987, as a double album by Paisl ...

'] but mangles it with The Avalanches, [t]he Avalanches or Air (French band), Air's bittersweet cut up Hook (music), hooks". ''Rolling Stone''s Jon Dolan praised the song's "buoyancy" and "melodic sheen", writing that it creates "an enjoyable balance of desire and distraction". ''

Paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...

'' ranked the song at number 18 on their list of the 1975's essential songs, with Jarod Johnson II feeling its high-pitched vocal refrains serve to create a "stark" tension that mirrors societal pressure to find a partner and "complete" oneself.

Promotion

The 1975 have promoted "Loving Someone" as an

"anthem", with Healy saying: Loving Someone', has become a bit of an anthem for some people in that community." While on tour in the US, the band performed the song as a tribute to the victims of the 2016

Orlando nightclub shooting On , 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States before Orlando Police officers fatally shot him after a three-hour standoff. I ...

. The screen and blocks which light up with various colours, images and patterns during their performance were lit with the colours of the rainbow. Following the

results, the 1975's manager, Jamie Osborn, revealed that a music video for "Loving Someone" would be released in place of " She's American". At a concert in Fairfax in November 2016, Healy introduced the track with a speech addressing the 2016 US election results. He expressed his solidarity with black, Muslim and gay Americans, saying that the band loves the US and do not stand for the bigotry and racism espoused by then-president elect

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's supporters. On the opening night of the 1975's concert at

in December 2016, Healy introduced "Loving Someone" with a speech decrying the "regressive ideals" of

and US presidential elections for stifling "young progressive voices", saying: "If we are the liberals, if we are the left, if we are the young, the black, the Muslim, the gay, whatever we are, we have to understand that all of this shit, these paradigms of race and all this kind of stuff, it seems to make sense but that’s not really what it’s about" The music video for "Loving Someone" was released on 20 January 2017. The band uploaded the video during Trump's inauguration, posting the visual to

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

while tagging him in the caption. It is a live video recorded during the 1975's performance at the O2 Arena. The visual begins with a

rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the seven spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. History In the 18th century, American Revolutionary ...

"wash ng over the room, representing the

pride flag A pride flag is any flag that represents a segment or part of the LGBTQ community. ''Pride'' in this case refers to the notion of LGBTQ pride. The terms ''LGBTQ flag'' and ''queer flag'' are often used interchangeably. Pride flags can represen ...

of the LGBTQ+ movement, before interspersing clips of the 1975 performing on stage, footage of fans in the crowd and closeup shots of the individual band members. In April 2017, the 1975 released a hoodie themed around the song in collaboration with the

It Gets Better Project It Gets Better is an Internet-based 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth around the globe. It was founded in the United States by gay activist, author, m ...

. The 1975 performed "Loving Someone" at the

in June 2017. A rainbow of colours lit up the tall walls of video screens behind the band and Healy dedicated the song to the people of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and London. In May 2019, the band performed the track at the

Gulf Shores Gulf Shores is a resort city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 15,014. Geography Gulf Shores is located on the Gulf of Mexico, and is the southernmost settlement in the state of Alabama. It ...

, Alabama, where Healy spoke out against Alabama's controversial ban on abortions. Several audience members in the crowd became visibly upset during his speech, booing and throwing objects at the 1975. They were advised to consider quickly leaving Alabama, having been notified of a higher threat level due to it being an

open carry In the United States, open carry refers to the practice of visibly carrying a firearm in public places, as distinguished from Concealed carry in the United States, concealed carry, where firearms cannot be seen by the casual observer. To "carry ...

state. Healy was furious and wrote "

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

" (2019) immediately after the event on their tour bus while travelling through

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. In August 2019, the band performed "Loving Someone" in

, where he kissed a male fan, defying strict anti-LGBTQ laws in the United Arab Emirates. As the stage background transformed into the gay pride flag, security guards at the venue attempted to pull the 1975 off the stage and sought to arrest him. Healy faced backlash from the incident on Twitter for endangering the fan since homosexual acts are illegal and can be punishable by fines and jail time. The singer admitted the incident was "irresponsible" but stood by his willingness to face punishment for his beliefs, saying: "I'm never going to not stand up for women. I'm not going to not stand up for gay people. I'm not going to not stand up for minorities."

Track listing

Limited Edition 7" vinyl disc # "Loving Someone" 4:20 # " Somebody Else" 5:48

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from ''I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It'' album liner notes. * Matthew Healy composer, producer, vocals,

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, producer,

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

, keyboards, synthesizer * Adam Hann composer * Ross MacDonald composer *

producer, programming, mixer * Jonathan Gilmore

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...

* Chris Gehringer

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

References

External links

* {{authority control 2017 songs 2017 singles British contemporary R&B songs Dirty Hit singles Interscope Records singles LGBTQ-related songs Polydor Records singles Songs written by Matty Healy The 1975 songs Vagrant Records singles