Part Of The Band

"Part Of The Band" is a baroque-pop stream-of-consciousness where Matty Healy touches on: A youthful crush. She was part of the Air Force, I was part of the band I always used to bust into her hand A boring night at home where he eats a takeaway meal delivered on a moped. At home, somewhere I don't like Eating stuff off of motorbikes And references to his role as a political voice for a generation and his past substance abuse. Am I ironically woke? The butt of my joke? Or am I just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke

Healy kicks off the second verse with a same-sex crush. And I fell in love with a boy, it was kinda lame I was Rimbaud and he was Paul Verlaine In my, my, my imagination French poet Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine had a two-year on-and-off affair in the early 1870s. It ended when a drunken Verlaine fired two shots with a pistol at Rimbaud. Healy is an ally of the LGBT community, and though not specifically gay, has hinted before of past likings for men. On "Me & You Together Song" he sang: I'm sorry that I'm kinda queer It's not as weird as it appears It's just my body doesn't stop me Oh it's ok, lots of people think I'm gay

"Part of the Band" originated with a song called "New York" that Healy performed live in Los Angeles while supporting Phoebe Bridgers in 2021. "New York," written by Dirty Hit labelmate Benjamin Francis Leftwich, lacked a bridge, so Healy wrote one. "I love the song and it didn't have a bridge," Healy explained on Reddit. "So when I opened up for Phoebe, I kinda wanted to do that old school Greenwich Village folk scene thing where people used to just play songs that were knocking around by other artists." The bridge developed into a separate tune co-written by Healy with his usual songwriting collaborator, 1975 drummer George Daniel, and with touring keyboardist Jamie Squire.