Format Digital download Length 3:42 Producer(s) Mike Crossey | Genre Funk rock Label Dirty Hit | |
Released 8 October 2015 (2015-10-08) | ||
"Love Me" is a song by the English rock band The 1975, released as the lead single from their sophomore album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it through Dirty Hit on 8 October 2015.
Contents
Background
According to Matthew Healy, the band's vocalist, the song was born out of confusion in response to the band's success. He spoke on the song's genesis to Billboard:
The song has been compared to "Fame" by David Bowie, as well as "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads.
Release
The song debuted on BBC Radio 1 on 8 October 2015 as Annie Mac's "Hottest Record in the World". The group performed the song alongside "The Sound" on their appearance on Saturday Night Live on 6 February 2016.
Reception
"Love Me" has received positive reviews. Matthew Horton of NME wrote that the song "fizzes with overweening confidence, fitting for a song Healy says is about narcissism." Nick Williams at Billboard dubbed it "an impressive coming-of-age shift" and a "spirited step away from the radio-friendly teen rock of its debut." Brennan Carley of Spin's response was favorable: "A track that wouldn’t be out of place on any Neon Indian record, albeit with more heavily U.K.-accented vocals, "Love Me" shows the band loosening their grip on accomplishing much of anything beyond the sprawling, joyous fun of making good tunes."
Music video
The song's music video, directed by Diane Martel, was released on 28 October 2015. A press release accompanying the clip states that the "post-ironic self-indulgent performance parodies rock and roll in the digital age and the self-constructed mythology of the iPhone generation." Healy commented on the video's meaning: "With "Love Me" we wanted to capture the neon-hued enthralling acquisition of success and excess, the screaming momentum, the sexy daze." In the clip, the band performs surrounded by cardboard cut-outs of pop stars Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, and Ed Sheeran, among others. Dan Stubbs of NME interpreted the clip as spoofing "the group's own rockstar pretensions, the generation's obsession with social media, and their contemporaries."