Songwriters of the Year - The 1975

Every great band has an annus mirabilis and for The 1975 it was 2018.

Indeed, for a band named after a year now over four decades in the past, The 1975’s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is the most thrillingly modern, zeitgeiststraddling record in a long time. Which makes the band’s songwriting team — drummer George Daniel, guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald and, of course, frontman Matthew Healy — the perfect winners of the prestigious Songwriters Of The Year gong.

They’re the first band to win since The Feeling in 2007, but then, at a time when we’re told bands and guitars are going out of fashion, The 1975 have bucked every trend going to capture the imagination of a generation.

A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is a hugely successful album — it shot straight to No.1 in the UK, and went Top 5 in the US. But it’s much more than that; destined to become a generational touchstone, it had critics comparing it to Radiohead’s OK Computer and had The Ivors Committee reaching for the superlatives.

“All at once daring, vulnerable and recklessly honest, The 1975’s songwriting on A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships stands out as a vivid picture of modernity,” said one. Another hailed the songs as “a quintessential snapshot of the emotional complexities of life in the here and now, but with all the hallmarks of a body of work that will stand the test of time”.

And, as anyone who’s attended one of their remarkable — and ever bigger — live shows will know, The 1975’s songs run the gamut of emotions. From the pop fizz of TooTimeTooTimeTooTime to the sincere balladry of Be My Mistake via sonic experimentalism such as I Like America & America Likes Me, these songs might be the product of a remarkable year. But they’re built to last for many, many more.