I think NovaCircuit below has the right idea. Because Milk was written in the band’s early days, when they were all based in Manchester (where they grew up), I feel like it’s a story about his relationship with a girl her knew who went off the rails after a break up. Matty was no doubt fully engaging in her self-destructive behaviour with her, but she was still getting over her ex (“talking about missing him”). It’s got a similar vibe to Sex, in that it’s sexy but sort of wrong. It sounds to me like Matty is her shoulder to cry on, but is also getting mashed up with her and then getting off with her. In Sex, he describes a relationship with a girl where “all [they] seem to do is talk about sex” and when they’re “on the bed in [his] room” she says “no!” Could the girl in Milk be the same girl that he was trying it on with in Sex, but she’s now broken up with her boyfriend...?
I disagree with NovaCircuit re the second line: I think it is quite sexual. In certain situations, women have a way of saying “we’re off soon” with their eyes (and it’s not about getting off work).
I really like how in this era of The 1975, when Matty was a teenager through to his early 20s, his depictions of relationships were very pure and really quite ordinary. There’s the guy in MONEY who “likes to get blown” and has “new clothes” and a “bloody nose, quietly walking back home” (tbh this could be a self portrait from Matty). The line, “Your brother is just sat there, he said that you felt snide” in The City makes me think of an average night out in Manchester, though “next one’s the MD”, so perhaps not so average! Even Menswear describes a pretty funny wedding scene, or at least I’ve always seen it that way. This ordinariness had completely faded by album 2: She’s American is the total opposite, all glitz and glamour, diets and teeth-fixing. A Change of Heart back-references the first album, but by this point we feel that Matty is quite removed from his roots and is exploring the hedonistic fakery of LA.
I think that Milk fits perfectly into this pure, youthful era of the band and I think the raw energy in the drums and guitars is really special. It’s very powerful and I love it.
I think NovaCircuit below has the right idea. Because Milk was written in the band’s early days, when they were all based in Manchester (where they grew up), I feel like it’s a story about his relationship with a girl her knew who went off the rails after a break up. Matty was no doubt fully engaging in her self-destructive behaviour with her, but she was still getting over her ex (“talking about missing him”). It’s got a similar vibe to Sex, in that it’s sexy but sort of wrong. It sounds to me like Matty is her shoulder to cry on, but is also getting mashed up with her and then getting off with her. In Sex, he describes a relationship with a girl where “all [they] seem to do is talk about sex” and when they’re “on the bed in [his] room” she says “no!” Could the girl in Milk be the same girl that he was trying it on with in Sex, but she’s now broken up with her boyfriend...?
I disagree with NovaCircuit re the second line: I think it is quite sexual. In certain situations, women have a way of saying “we’re off soon” with their eyes (and it’s not about getting off work).
I really like how in this era of The 1975, when Matty was a teenager through to his early 20s, his depictions of relationships were very pure and really quite ordinary. There’s the guy in MONEY who “likes to get blown” and has “new clothes” and a “bloody nose, quietly walking back home” (tbh this could be a self portrait from Matty). The line, “Your brother is just sat there, he said that you felt snide” in The City makes me think of an average night out in Manchester, though “next one’s the MD”, so perhaps not so average! Even Menswear describes a pretty funny wedding scene, or at least I’ve always seen it that way. This ordinariness had completely faded by album 2: She’s American is the total opposite, all glitz and glamour, diets and teeth-fixing. A Change of Heart back-references the first album, but by this point we feel that Matty is quite removed from his roots and is exploring the hedonistic fakery of LA.
I think that Milk fits perfectly into this pure, youthful era of the band and I think the raw energy in the drums and guitars is really special. It’s very powerful and I love it.