Samuel Bradley
On September 21st, The 1975 dropped “All I Need To Hear”, the fourth single from their upcoming album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language which comes out on October 14th.
The track is a deeply vulnerable and stripped-down song, there are no bells and whistles to it, just emotions and heartfelt lyrics. Now, The 1975 are no strangers to making songs like this, “Be My Mistake” from the band’s third album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, is another deeply personal and emotive song.
The difference though is that in “Be My Mistake”, Healy sings about how the new person he’s in a relationship with doesn’t and will never compare to the person he used to be with. In “All I Need To Hear”, Healy sings about how all the things in his life, material and other relationships don’t mean anything to him if he doesn’t have the love of the person he cares for.
Now, let’s get into the lyrics!
Lyrics to The 1975’s “All I Need To Hear”
Verse 1
I get out my records
When you go away
People are talking
I miss what they say
Chorus
Because it all means nothing, my dear
If I can’t be holding you near
So tell me you love me Cause that’s all that I need to hear
Verse 2
I sit in my kitchen
With nothing to eat
With so many friends
I don’t wanna meet
Chorus
Cause I don’t need music in my ears
I don’t need the crowds and the cheers
Oh, just tell me you love me
Cause that’s all that I need to hear
Bridge
I’ve been told so many times before
But hearing it from you means much more
So much more
Verse 3
Reply to my message
And pick up my calls
You see, I wrote you a letter
It was no use at all
Chorus
And oh, I don’t care if you’re insincere
Just tell me what I wanna hear
You know where to find me
The place where we lived all these years, oh
And tell me you love me
That’s all that I need to hear
Oh, tell me you love me
That’s all that I need to hear
Analysis of The 1975’s “All I Need To Hear”
Verse 1 Breakdown
In the first verse Healy talks about how when this person he loves is away he tries to do things to distract him, such as listening to records, he also tells us that the conversations around him don’t peak his interest. The everyday things don’t have meaning to him, life just feels ordinary and uneventful without this person around him.
Chorus Breakdown
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In the first chorus Healy sings about how if he can’t be with this person then nothing really matters, life doesn’t really have much meaning. The only thing that matters to him is that his partner loves him still.
Feeling that reciprocated love from the person you care for is an unexplainable feeling and not having it can make everything else feel mundane and unimportant.
Verse 2 Breakdown
The second verse talks about this emptiness you feel when the person you love may no longer feel the same way. Food doesn’t seem appealing and neither does socializing with other people. The only thing you want is to be around them, even if it may not be the best thing.
Chorus Breakdown
The second chorus feels slightly more vulnerable than the previous one and slightly deeper. Healy sings:
Cause I don’t need music in my ears
I don’t need the crowds and the cheers
Music is Healy’s life, being a musician is his profession and he’s saying he’d give all this up if he could just hear his partner tell him that they love him.
The older we get, the more we begin to realize that the things that once seemed so important for us to live happy, successful lives aren’t that important and it’s the simple things that mean the most and have a more lasting impact on our lives.
Bridge Breakdown
In the bridge, we hear the lyrics:
I’ve been told so many times before
But hearing it from you means much more
The words “I love you” carry so much weight, these three words can make or break a person whether we realize the impact of them in the moment or not.
In our lives, we will have many relationships with people, whether they are on a romantic level or not, and we will hear the words “I love you”. In the moment they may bring us joy or this euphoric feeling, but once the relationship dies out we begin to realize maybe we didn’t actually love this person or we had a different idea of what we thought love was. It isn’t really until you meet that one person that you truly realize the gravity of those words and once you do it makes hearing them mean so much more.
Verse 3 Breakdown
Healy is trying everything he can to contact the person he cares for. Even though they are unresponsive he doesn’t give up hope.
We often think that maybe if we keep persisting, then this person will eventually give in to us and listen to what we have to say and everything can go back to how it was, that they still love us.
Chorus Breakdown
In the final chorus breakdown, Healy sings:
And oh, I don’t care if you’re insincere
Just tell me what I wanna hear
We often think that hearing these words will bring us closure or peace of mind after a breakup, and while this can be true, it can often have the reverse effect and hurt us more than we thought it would. It can be hard to move on and think about us every feeling the same way for another person again, we feel stuck:
You know where to find me
The place where we lived all these years
The relationships we will have in our lifetime are meant to teach us lessons, and often times these relationships won’t last but the lessons do. It can be hard to see it at the moment and we think the only thing we need to hear to get through it will be to hear the words “I love you” one last time.
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