I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It

After the band released their self-titled debut, in 2013, they spent 2015 mostly recording a follow-up.[10]

On 1 June, the band's Twitter accounts were deleted, which caused mass speculation from both fans and media alike that the band had broken up. On 2 June, Healy reactivated the accounts and tweeted again, but revealed a cryptic and symbolic comic strip containing the message that the band had gone on hiatus. A blurred Instagram picture from Healy titled "The 1975-2" set anticipation for release.[11] The same day, the social media accounts were reinstated.[12]

The tweet by Healy was verified as the name for their second album later in October 2015 with "Love Me" (a "very funky new single", according to Spin) released on 8 October.[12]

The band cited D'Angelo, Christina Aguilera, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Roberta Flack, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Boards of Canada, Kim Carnes, Scritti Politti, and Sigur Rós as inspirations for the record's 17 tracks.[13][14] The album's sound has been described as pop,[15][16][17][18][19] new wave,[20][21] dance-rock,[2] indie rock,[15] pop punk[15] and soul.[15] It also incorporates synth-pop,[22][23] jazz,[15][22] post-rock,[17] dance-pop[2] and R&B[2] elements.

The album's artwork and design was created by Samuel Burgess-Johnson and photographed by David Drake.

For each song on the album, a pink neon sign was created and put against various locations to create nostalgia for the song,[34] but to also detail the thematic material and complexity of each song through the photo's atmosphere. Burgess-Johnson worked closely with Healy to help with the placement.[35] The box set version of the album gained a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.

The album was released on 26 February 2016.[36] The US Target edition of the album includes two bonus tracks: a demo of "A Change of Heart" and the song "How to Draw".[37]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.8/10[38]
Metacritic	75/100[39]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[40]
The A.V. Club	B[41]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[42]
The Guardian	[43]
NME	[17]
Pitchfork	6.5/10[44]
Q	[45]
Rolling Stone	[2]
Spin	8/10[19]
The Times	[46]

The record received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, the album has an average score of 75 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 24 reviews.[39] Writing for Exclaim!, Ian Gormely noted that the band's ambition was perhaps their sole stumbling block, though pursuing all musical avenues makes the result "overstuffed, awkwardly titled and frequently brilliant."[47] In Drowned in Sound's review of the album, they praised the album's eclecticism and lyricism, concluding, "What they've made is a bold body of work that sounds effortless and odd and sophisticated. What they do next is likely to be stadium-filling and bonkers and brilliant, but it matters little when what they're doing now is so sensational."[48]

NME, who had previously been highly critical of the band, also praised the album for its scope and ambition, writing, "Any record that burrows as deep into your psyche as 'I Like It...' should be considered essential. It's hugely clever and wryly funny, too."[17] Although music journalist Alexis Petridis noted that parts of the album were over-ambitious, he went on to claim that "[i]ncredibly, though, most of the time Healy gets away with it. That's sometimes because his observations are sharp – as a skewering of celebrity #squad culture, "you look famous, let's be friends / And portray we possess something important / And do the things we like" is pretty acute – but more usually because they come loaded with witty self-awareness and deprecation: the endless depictions of vacuous, coke-numbed girls he has met would get wearying were it not for the fact that he keeps turning the lyrical crosshair on himself."[43] In a more mixed review, Rolling Stone criticised tracks like 'Lostmyhead' and 'Please Be Naked' for being 'boring-melty' but praised songs such as 'Somebody Else', 'Loving Someone' and 'Love Me'.[2]

The album became the group's second number one in the United Kingdom, debuting atop the UK Albums Chart, with combined sales of over 58,000.[83] It became the group's first number one on the US Billboard 200, with 98,000 pure album sales in its debut week and 108,000 sps,[84] while also setting the record for longest title of a Billboard number-one album with 71 characters.[85] The next week, it fell to number 26, tying with Amos Lee's 2011 album Mission Bell for the fourth largest drop from number 1 as of January 2017.[86] It also debuted at number one in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.[87][88][89] The album was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales of over 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. On 10 April 2017 the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 500,000 units.

Credits adapted from liner notes[1] and Tidal.[90]

The 1975

• Matthew Healy – vocals (all tracks except 7), background vocals (2–6, 8–16), electric guitar (2–6, 8–10, 12–16), piano (7), keyboards (10, 13), acoustic guitar (16, 17), production (all tracks)
• Adam Hann – electric guitar (2–6, 8–10, 12–16)
• Ross MacDonald – bass guitar (2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15), upright bass (16)
• George Daniel – programming (1–16), drums (2–6, 8, 9, 14–16), keyboards (2–6, 8–16), percussion (2–6, 8, 9, 14–16), synthesiser (2, 8–16), synthesiser programming (3–6), production (all tracks)

Additional musicians

• The 1975 discography
• List of songs by Matty Healy