When I was in California for WWDC last month, I spent a lot of time in the car with Zac. He's made it clear he's not a fan of The 1975, but even he acknowledged how often the band changes their genre and sound.
One song, he said, sounded like One Direction (“The Sound”). Another sounded like a “knockoff” Blink-182 '(“People”). Other songs sounded like a completely different band altogether.
Fun fact: the song that Zac thought sounded like One Direction, “The Sound,” actually almost ended up being a One Direction song.
Matty Healy told The Q in 2016 that One Direction asked him to come to the studio and work together in 2014, which led to him playing an early version of “The Sound” for the band.
“I went into the studio with [One Direction] for a couple of hours to work on some stuff and, funnily enough, I ended up showing them ‘The Sound’ as a suggestion, but nothing came of it. I was asked to do it, so I thought I’d see how it all works but it just didn’t really work very well. It didn’t resonate so I thought I’d stick to my own thing.”
Not everyone likes The 1975, but anyone can appreciate their versatility – even from one song to the next on the same album. Let alone from one album to another.