The 1975’s “Somebody Else” is a moody and reflective six minutes of ’80s-inspired synthy goodness, and it turns out that the song’s greatness goes deeper than that, especially when you play it at a different speed than was originally intended. As NME notes, BBC Radio 1 music reporter Steve Holden accidentally played his I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It record at double speed and found that “Somebody Else” was transformed into “a Chvrches-esque banger.”
Accidentally playing Somebody Else by The 1975 at double speed makes it a @CHVRCHES-esque banger. pic.twitter.com/vag1603n0V
— Steve Holden (@SteveHReports) June 5, 2017
There is more…. pic.twitter.com/eTqhHyaEIY
— Steve Holden (@SteveHReports) June 5, 2017
He’s definitely not wrong; At double speed, “Somebody Else” would clock in at just under three minutes and frankly wouldn’t feel terribly out of place on Chvrches’ 2015 album Every Open Eye. This unintentional discovery revealed that, at least on “Somebody Else,” The 1975 is sort of like slow Chvrches, which amused the latter group’s Martin Doherty. He caught wind of Holden’s tweets and responded, “The real question here is if you play one of our songs at half speed, does it sound like The 1975?”
One Chvrches fan quickly got to work and found that half-speed versions of “Leave A Trace” and “The Mother We Share” aren’t terribly far off from capturing The 1975’s vibe:
https://twitter.com/StayVndrTheTide/status/872165781475348480
https://twitter.com/StayVndrTheTide/status/872168144592408579
This isn’t the first time the internet has discovered that messing with a song’s speed can have surprisingly cool results. For example, a 33 rpm version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” makes it sound like a Cher song, and slowing down Justin Bieber’s “Baby” turns it into a serene 15-minute ambient journey.
Check out the modified “Somebody Else” clips above, and revisit the original song’s music video below.
