"Love It If We Made It" by The 1975 // Song Review
"Love It If We Made It" by The 1975 was written between 2016 and 2018 - undoubtedly one of the most harrowing and chaotic times that many of us have lived through up to that point. George Daniel, the band's drummer and producer, first started the song in 2015, after completing the band's sophomore album. The 1975's lead singer and primary writer, Matty Healy, gathered headlines from newspapers during a two-year period to use in the song's lyrics. He ended up rewriting much of the song to better capture the volatile political landscape we were living through at that time, which unfortunately has not slowed down since. It was released in late 2018 as the lead single of The 1975's third album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. In the song, Matty is laying out a succinct timeline of events over the past few years, one after another for every verse. It basically serves as sort of a newsreel of every major headline and historical event in the culture for that very distinct two year period in history. It is very direct and provides an objective summary of events of that time. He repeatedly shares the simple sentiment of; "Jesus save us, modernity has failed us, and I'd love it if we made it".
In a song that is made up of almost exclusively headlines from the media, it also takes note about our general distrust in social media as well, as misinformation often runs rampant across the platforms. In a world where we have access to more information than ever, is there ever a point where we are exposed to too much? "What I’m saying is, we are in a world where we have the ability to connect and have all the information in the world, but it’s resulted in distrust and falsifying information, and using the system of delivering empirical truths to everybody, using that to lie, I think," Matty told Genius. He embodies that mindset himself in one of the first lines of the song as a means of "saying controversial things just for the hell of it".
The song kicks off right away with a sense of urgency and a call for action, the energy doesn't stop at any moment during this song either. Matty is literally shouting almost the entire song, which grabs the listener's attention right away to get the message of "Love It If We Made It" through to them. It has industrial and electronic rock elements and was heavily inspired by "The Downtown Lights" by The Blue Nile. It is such an impassioned and very powerful performance from him. That creative decision also feels like an encapsulation of the way many people were feeling at that time too, fed up with everything happening and kind of feeling hopeless about it. From the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, to the corrupt American prison system, to the infamous Trump quotes; "I moved on her like a bitch", "excited to be indicted" and "Thank you, Kanye, very cool!" at the climax of the song - "Love It If We Made It" really serves as a snapshot of big moments in modern history in one single song.
In an interview with Pitchfork, Matty recalled writing the bridge, saying the moment he figured out the sequencing of the lyrics was "...if you could bottle it, it would be better than any other drug." He added, "I'd just written the Kanye line, and I was thinking, 'What else has he famously said?' Then it was like the syllable spaces of 'I moved on her like a bitch; just went in, game show-style, and I was like, 'Oh my god! I’ve got it!' And then my bandmates were like, 'It's another swear word.' And I was like, 'Oh yeah, that's a bit annoying.' But then I was like, 'No, if we're going to get censored, we're going to get censored for verbatim quoting the leader of the free world.' That is the song in its essence. How weird is reality?" He noted many times that "Love It If We Made It" was uncomfortable for him to record because it is just so uncanny that this is our reality and these are all real words and headlines coming out of his mouth. In another interview with Genius, he said the song does indeed get censored when it plays on the radio, although he is quoting the President's words verbatim. "...that's a weird reality, that's weird, that's some Idiocracy kind of stuff," Matty told Genius.
The 1975 has been quite outspoken politically and socially through the years, especially during this period of their career. "Love It If We Made It" is a defining song of The 1975's career for so many reasons. Although it is very blunt and direct, this is also not really a protest song either. Matty has also been very adamant about distinguishing the difference of with "Love It If We Made It", as it is more of an objective retelling and summary of events during that snapshot in history. The accompanying music video is also an incredibly powerful visual representation of all these events, as well.
It is such a powerful representation of their continued willingness to directly tackle important and heavy topics in their music. That is especially a major through-line in their albums A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships and Notes On A Conditional Form. Other songs like "People" and "I Like America And America Likes Me" are two more of the most important in their discography for all of the same reasons that "Love It If We Made It" is. I honestly can't name another band at their level that would even attempt to make music like this, which is something that really sets them apart from so many of their peers in the industry.
As I mentioned, this song is directly referencing a lot of current events and headlines between 2016 and 2018, when this song was released. At the time, I just finished my first year of college studying Journalism and I was just really starting to become more politically aware of what is really going on in the world and why standing up for what you believe in matters. That was just such a weird time, especially as a teenager just being exposed to all of that for the first time was a lot, to put it plainly. Little did we all know it was all about to get a whole lot worse in just a couple of years! But this song really did put so much into perspective for me and taught me so much. Still to this day after listening to it countless times, it is always so moving and so thought provoking.
I had tears in my eyes when they performed this song, there was something so powerful about twenty thousand people screaming "I'd love it if we made it" over and over. I will never forget that. It is such a special song, and if it didn't already happen before 2018, this is the song that forever solidified The 1975 as not only one of the most important bands in my own life, but of this entire generation.
The poetry really is in the streets and there is beauty all around us if you're willing to look for it. Matty has once called it "the gem of hope amongst all of the rubble" in an interview with Genius. It just continues to mean more and more to me with each passing year and the message of it is more important than ever to hold onto.
This is the third post in a new series on my blog, which I will be sharing a new song of the week every Monday. This song has been on my mind heavily over the past several months and especially on today of all days where everything in the news just feels so dark. I have a lot of thoughts right now and I don't really know where to start, but what I do know right now is that art and music can serve as an escape from all of the horrors happening in the world around us. We just need to keep creating and keep uplifting the communities around us above all else. That's what this song particularly represents for me. I'd love it if we made it - truly!
Photo Credit: The 1975, Dirty Hit
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