I’d like to take a poll: for those who lived through their I Like it When You Sleep era – through the glittering arena pop, the high gloss finish, all of their slick guitar licks and big pop ballads – does this song do it for you? Because I, for one, am far from outraged by this (not-so-far) departure from their usual display of existential dread – which, oftentimes, is just as violently flamboyant. “People,” off the bat, slams you, sonically, with adrenaline-inducing, seeing red-type rage, and, visually, with Healy’s rattling show of sarcastic self-indulgence. The music video shows him thrashing manically inside a 12×12 with walls of changing neon-colored screens, all while screaming rabidly about the errors of our culture. I mean, how unfamiliar is this, really? From where I’m standing, all the band has done is moved their standard cultural dismay to a more abrasive soapbox – but in a much less… palatable way, I’ll add.

For them, an ever-shifting style is far from new. The 1975 has always produced records that reflect who and where they are creatively, resulting in changes to their musical and visual aesthetic on the reg. So, no, to answer the question most of you are asking, “People” does not mark the ‘new 1975,’ because when have we ever not had what, at times, feels like a whole new band with each new record? They certainly have formed a pattern out of non-pattern, per se. They almost always introduce the record with the black sheep of the tracklist – the conversation starter, i.e. “Sex” (Self-Titled), “Love Me” (I Like it When You Sleep), “Give Yourself a Try” (A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships), with “People” falling right in line.