In 2012, in an interview with Elliot Mitchell of When the Gramophone Rings, Healy said that the band had a different approach to recording the album than to the EPs: "I think the best albums are ones where every track could be a potential single. įrontman Matty Healy described the style as "pretty experimental, and goes from glitchy R&B to big 80s powerpop to mid 90s soul, but it's done in our way obviously." Recording It also includes funk and indie rock elements. The album is mostly labeled as rock because of the band, but the wide variety of genres in the album has led to it being described as electropop, emo, indie pop, pop, pop punk and pop rock. They later played at the Festival Republic Stage at the 2013 Reading and Leeds Festival in August. They toured London with Bastille and Muse in the second half of The 2nd Law World Tour at the Emirates Stadium on, the United States with the Neighbourhood on June, and London again with the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park on 13 July. The band toured extensively to support the album, raise awareness and build up momentum before dropping the full-length release.
Between mid-2012 and early 2013, the 1975 released four extended plays: Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars and IV some of the songs included there would make it onto the album.