Part of the Band

"Part of the Band" arose from the song "New York" that Matty Healy performed in 2021 as a support act for Phoebe Bridgers. "New York", written by Benjamin Francis Leftwich, lacked a bridge, so Healy wrote one; it developed into a separate song. The single is a collaboration with Jack Antonoff, co-producer, and Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, a contributing vocalist. ==Composition==

Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan described the song as art pop. In Pitchfork, Sam Sodomsky wrote that the song was "serene folk-rock", with a "light and buoyant" instrumental that evoked Vampire Weekend. Lyrically, Shutler described the song as an "intense tangled stream-of-consciousness", as Healy reflects on his past relationships and then on himself and his "role as an outspoken, political mouthpiece for a generation". ==Release==

"Part of the Band" was released as the lead single of Being Funny in a Foreign Language on 7 July 2022. Prior to release, billboards teased lyrics to the song; Healy posted lyrics and a snippet of the song on Instagram. The album is scheduled for release on 14 October 2022. ==Critical reception==

Shutler rated it four out of five stars. He commented that the band "continue to reinvent themselves and carve their own path forward" and enjoyed the "giddy freedom" of the song's "gut-led recklessness". Ackroyd saw the song as "a thrust towards new horizons", continuing the 1975's "lack of defined expectation". He praised that the band were "at their most organic" and called it "either brave or stupid" as a "comeback track". DeVille concurred that the single was "not quite like any 1975 song to date". He reviewed of the lyrics that "Healy weaves his more outlandish words into the music so smoothly that you might not even notice how many buttons he's pushing". Sodomsky found it more minimalistic than Notes on a Conditional Form. He reviewed that the lyrics are more "dense" and "neurotically quotable" than any song by the band, and that the "grand, playful" nature was something "that only this band could pull off", serving as "a reminder that nonchalance can also be a meticulous performance". Murray reviewed the song as "remarkably subtle", finding it "one of their most straight-forward, heart-on-sleeve" songs and praising Healy as "never a writer to dull his pen". == Charts ==