| "All I Need to Hear" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by the 1975 | ||||
| from the album Being Funny in a Foreign Language | ||||
| Released | 21 September 2022 | |||
| Genre | Blue-eyed soul | |||
| Length | 3:30 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Producer(s) | ||||
| The 1975 singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "All I Need to Hear" on YouTube | ||||
"All I Need to Hear" is a song by English band the 1975 from their fifth studio album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022). The song was released on 21 September 2022 through Dirty Hit and Polydor Records as the fourth single from the album. It was written by band members Matty Healy and George Daniel alongside Jamie Squire. Production of the song was handled by Healy, Daniel and Jack Antonoff. Inspired by Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" (1976), Healy sought to replicate Simon's sincerity and earnestness by crafting a songwriting exercise where the singer deliberately omitted sardonic and humorous lyrics, aiming to make the song sound akin to a cover.
A downtempo slow jam, "All I Need to Hear" is composed in the style of a blue-eyed soul piano ballad. Drawing influence from country soul, blues, country, jazz, roots and soul music, the song's melancholic, stripped-down production uses a sombre gospel piano, acoustic guitars, a sleepy drum beat, poignant strings and flickers of pedal steel guitar. Thematically, it is a love song that explores themes of heartbreak and isolation following the end of a relationship. Lyrically, the song focuses on Healy's all-consuming love for a former partner and discusses his desire for reciprocal love, rather than material possessions and other relationships.
"All I Need to Hear" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics, who praised song's understated, simplistic tone and the emotional vulnerability in the lyrics, with several deeming it a career highlight. Reviewers compared the song to the Rolling Stones and Billy Joel. Commercially, the song reached number 36 on the UK Indie Chart, number 21 on the New Zealand Hot Singles chart and number 12 on the Billboard Japan Japan Hot Overseas chart. An accompanying music video, directed by Samuel Bradley, was released on 21 September. The black-and-white visual, shot in a documentary style, features Healy engaging in a monologue while wandering the gardens of Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire, England, before joining the remaining the 1975 members for a live performance of the song. To promote the song, the band performed it on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge and included it on the set list of their At Their Very Best tour.