"Narcissist" was a standout single from No Rome's 2018 EP RIP Indo Hisashi, his first release under The 1975's label, Dirty Hit. He worked closely with George Daniel and Matty Healy throughout the entire project, so their sonic influence runs through the EP, but this track is the only one to officially feature The 1975 as a collective.
In a 2018 interview with Zane Lowe for Beats 1, No Rome - the stage name for London-based Filipino artist Guendoline Gomez - opened up about the early concept of the song and their collaboration. He said, "I made a demo then I sent it over to Matty cause we were listening to the stuff that I'd been working on recently. I sent him over that track and he also fell in love with it the same way I did, and he was like, 'oh, do you wanna do something with it?' so I was like 'yeah.'"
The song has such an infectious hook and is truly an underrated gem. It captures the feeling of going round and round in a relationship, repeating the same toxic cycles every time, mostly because of your own faults but done in such a charming way. "345's where we stayed, she told me I'm a narcissist doing it again," No Rome sings in the chorus, laying out all of the messiness and self-inflicted chaos that runs throughout "Narcissist".
In another interview with Zane Lowe, Matty also talked about discovering No Rome's music and the origin of their collaborations. "It's so exciting to be working with him. I just fell in love with it completely. I'd never seen him, I didn't know who he was or anything. I flew him over to the UK because I was just too excited, and, when I get that excited, then I know that I've got to do it. We moved it over and signed him to Dirty Hit, and the rest was history."
The song also fits seamlessly into the rest of the music The 1975 were making at the time with A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. No Rome even co-wrote the iconic "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME" from that album, which fits so well into the sonic and narrative universe of "Narcissist" in the best way. All of the music from this time is linked in a really cool way that I love when artists like this do, especially in the midst of such distinct creative periods of their career.
"And I've been seeing somebody, but I've not found a way to tell you that I'm seeing somebody, there's not a nice way for me to say that I've been seeing somebody," Matty sings in the chorus. "You know I want you to be happy, since I'm seeing somebody and then maybe we can get on with it". It's very confessional and conversational in a way that runs through so much of their best work.
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