“When We Are Together” by The 1975

A number of music analysts have described The 1975’s “When We Are Together” as being “a complicated love story”. That said, when you look at the song’s lyrics, “complicated” may even be an understatement. 

It seems that the strategy Matt and co. adopted when relaying his featured romance with the addressee doesn’t really focus on any particular aspect of their relationship. For example, the beginning of the second verse would give the impression that the vocalist is about to harp on differences between himself and his lover. However, the passage concludes by rather pointing to their similarities, in a manner of speaking. 

In terms of said similarities, permeating throughout is this insinuation that both of them are a bit out there, such as in the initial verse where they first kiss (and apparently meet) in a Walmart, and the addressee colorfully describing New York City’s Central Park as “Sea World for trees”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. 

And as for the bridge, it infers that when their big “egos” collide, the vocalist has a tendency to use backhanded tactics in the name of manipulating the addressee.

Chorus of “When We Are Together”

So again, it’s hard to see how all of the above would be related in any type of cohesive fashion. But in the chorus, which also commences in a heavily-poetic fashion, at least the vocalist relays the thesis sentiment in sort of a straightforward fashion. And that would be something along the lines of him ‘feeling better when they are together’.

Or viewed from a different angle, let’s say that a majority of the lyrics indicate that this romance has its challenges, both externally but especially internally. Yet the vocalist obviously perceives some type of value/pleasure from being with the addressee. 

Or more simply put, this is a love song. However, it is no ordinary love song. What makes this song unorthodox in that regard is that it is only briefly (i.e. at the end of the chorus) that an actual sentiment of affection is relayed from the vocalist to addressee.

Release Date of “When We Are Together”

This is the closing song on the playlist of The 1975’s “Being Funny in a Foreign Language” project. The said project is an 11 track album that Dirty Hit made public on 14 October 2022. 

Even though at the time of the album’s release, this track wasn’t a single release, it went on to become one of the album’s prominent tracks. Other notable tracks birthed by this album include:

• “Part of the Band”
• “Happiness”
• “I’m in Love with You”
• “All I Need to Hear”

Credits

Songs throughout the album, including this one, were written and produced by Matt Healy and George Daniel, who are respectively the band’s singer and drummer. 

On this particular track they were assisted writing-wise by Rob Milton. On the production side, they worked together with Jack Antonoff.

Matt Healy has noted that “When We Are Together” was created entirely within 30 hours. In just a little over 24 hours, the song underwent the following processes:

• writing
• recording
• mixing

According to Healy, the process of creating this song had to be accelerated because he was under pressure to deliver a final song for the album. But that said, he also recognized that it serves as a proper closing for the overall theme behind “Being Funny in a Foreign Language”.

Something Worth Noting

Jack Antonoff (who is credited as a producer on “When We Are Together”) is widely regarded as one of the most relevant songwriters and producers of his generation. Some of his notable works include the following:

• Fun’s “We Are Young”
• Lana Del Rey’s “Cinnamon Girl”
• Pink’s “Beautiful Trauma”
• Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer”
• Lana Del Rey’s “Let Me Love You Like A Woman”
• Olivia Rodrigo’s “Deja Vu“