The 1975’s upcoming third studio album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is over a month away, but the Manchester, England rock band has already given its fans plenty of new music. Today, the quartet shared “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You),” its fifth preview of the project. On the track, lead vocalist Matty Healy seemingly alludes to his struggles with drug addiction.
On the chorus, Healy uses imagery that evokes using heroin:
Collapse my veins wearing beautiful shoes
It’s not living if it’s not with you
The bridge appears to reference symptoms of withdrawal, such as sweating and loss of appetite:
I can’t stop sweating
Or control my feet
I’ve got a twenty-stone monkey
That I just can’t beat
I can stage a situation
But I just can’t eat
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Healy revealed that he sought treatment for a four-year addiction to heroin and benzodiazepines in the midst of writing of the album. “I scared the [expletive] out of everybody that I love, and that was enough for me,” he said.
Healy explained that the album contains drug references because he needed to get the experience out of his system. “If my most recent memories are afflicted by addiction, it’s probably going to be a thing,” he said. “I’m not going to talk about it for long.”
A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is out on November 30 via Interscope and follows 2016’s I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it.
Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to The 1975’s “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)” on Genius now.
