Love It If We Made It, There's no escape

 Love it if we made it

The 1975’s new single, “Love It If We Made It,” is an airing of grievances large and small. On one hand, people of color are being victimized through systemic racism and the prison-industrial complex, and refugees are dying on Mediterranean beaches; on the other, Lil Peep is gone too soon, and the president and Kanye West are bonding on Twitter over “dragon energy.” String it all together, and you’re left with an absurd pop polemic for the end of an empire.

That may sound pretty rough, but take heart: Matty Healy & co. aren’t quite ready to give up on our pale blue dot. “Love It If We Made It” takes the bleakest possible subject matter and renders it stunning, revisiting the palette of 2016’s I like it when you sleep…—’80s sophisti-pop melodies, soaring choral parts, squealing filter disco riffs—and supercharging it with a new degree of urgency. Healy turns out one of the most impassioned vocal performances of his career here, and when he barks out lines like, “The war has been incited, and guess what/You’re all invited,” it’s easy to imagine him stepping away from the mic so a stadium can scream along.

“Love It If We Made It” suggests you can always find a way to keep going, even when you’re drowning in the planet’s collective misery. (You might even do so with a grin after hearing Healy groan, “Poison me, daddy.”) And if you feel like the world’s just too much to bear, maybe you can put your faith in the 1975. Most bands would call that statement a little grandiose; I have a feeling these guys would welcome the challenge.