By Michaela Maxey

In their debut self-titled album, the 1975 created a song that is nothing short of a masterpiece. “Robbers” is by far their best song and has yet to be topped, and this is due to both the melody and vocals. The use of electric guitar and drums creates an echoing sound that offers a chilling and airy feeling. Then, frontman Matthew Healy gives haunting vocals that draw you in as he traces an abusive relationship. The theme of death, or at least of something going wrong, is shown through the lyrics, “I’ll shoot him if it’s what you ask” and “Now everybody’s dead,” reflecting the creepy sound the melody offers.

The song becomes unnerving as it goes through emotional highs and lows, and it’s good to know Healy’s inspiration for the song is not based on any of his or his bandmates own experiences. Instead, Healy draws inspiration from Quentin Tarantino’s movie True Romance:

“I got really obsessed with the idea behind Patricia Arquette’s character in True Romance when I was about eighteen. That craving for the bad boy in that film it’s so sexualised… ‘Robbers’ is about a heist that goes wrong – I suppose you can read it as a metaphor – and a girl who’s obsessed with her professional killer boyfriend. It’s a romantic ideal.” – Matthew Healy

Indeed, Healy grasps the typical Bonnie and Clyde/Clarence and Alabama ideals and runs with it. He takes what’s happening in film and transposes it into music, giving us a song that will do nothing less than give you chills as it proceeds through every event. Nothing is censored–drugs, sex, and death are all on the table just like it would be in these films. So next time you feel like you need a bad boy/bad girl, you may want to take another listen to this song before diving head-first into a romantic heist you may not be able to handle.