As we approach the end of this exhausting year in 2018, it seems somewhat fitting to find solace in the unlikeliest of musical places – The 1975. With their latest 3rd LP ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’, frontman Matt Healy and co. have brought about a characteristically uncharacteristic indie-pop album full of welcomed twists attuned to the common millennial’s struggles in modern society.
In light of their previous collective efforts – usually resulting in overblown, washed-out, emotional indie-pop – Matt Healy precariously stretches his musical limbs to new heights on this LP. Sonically containing a more upbeat 80s new wave tone with a welcomed millennial-driven twist – along with a clamour of other sounds ripped from R&B, soul, jazz, and even Britpop(?!). Having not been the greatest enthusiast of this painfully self-sorrowed band prior to this LP, it is through gritted teeth that I concede this musical victory to the unlikeliest of victors, The 1975.
The glitchy, auto-tuned sounds of the starting track ‘The 1975’ is an awkward one to commence things. As Healy later admitted – it comes across as a seemingly rushed introduction to this hour-long journey of an LP. The following 2 tracks, ‘Give Yourself a Try’, and ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’, then offer a rather trite take on the current state of affairs in the pop landscape, with the former offering a headache-bounding guitar-screeching riff throughout, and the latter bearing a Drake-esque tone with some all-too-reliant use of auto-tuning on Healy’s vocals. Nevertheless, the messages behind these tracks offer a slight redemption to their sonic shortcomings. ‘Giving yourself a try’ remains, quite obviously, at the center of the former track – encouraging youngsters to give credence to their identity and take ownership of their life paths, whereas, the latter track basks in the rays of unfaithful relationships and, the albeit cringeworthy, forgetful recountal of Healy’s former lovers.
Fortunately, the LP begins to redeem itself after we push away from its flawed and uninspiring inception. The hauntingly vacuous electronic-blips from ‘How To Draw / Petrichor’ offer an intriguing tangent in this 2-part song with Healy’s bizarrely auto-tuned vocals dipping into this ethereal sonic landscape. This tide of kinetic electronic energy neatly rolls over to the overtly-emotional 80s pop ballad ‘Love It If We Made It’. Healy’s explosively volatile vocal delivery swells perfectly in the simple synth chord progressions and electronic notes perusing in the background. Undoubtedly, the incorporation of choirs and percussion instrumentation in the chorus sections take this particular song beyond the heights of generic catchiness and push The 1975 in a much-welcomed new sonic direction.
This intensity is diminished into the soft-around-edges piano/acoustic ballad ‘Be My Mistake’ showcasing Healy’s emotional vulnerability even further. It may not be the most inventive track, however, it offers yet again another intriguing tangent from The 1975’s usual musical repertoire. On the subject of tangents, ‘Sincerity is Scary’ encapsulates the soulfulness of modern alternative-R&B, through some soothing trumpets and swelling synths sonically panning across either speaker throughout. This ultimately gives way to the soulfully-brooding chorus “Why can’t we be friends? When we are lovers?”, perhaps commenting on the frivolous notion of sincerity within relationships amongst today’s heavily-scrutinised and monitored society.
This interpretation on modern society then awkwardly translates into the ‘SoundCloud Rap’-tribute song of ‘I Like America and America Likes Me’, showcasing Healy’s (auto-tuned) cries to end gun violence in America. It’s at this stage in the LP when the variety of tones and genre-crossing becomes slightly grating. Whilst I’m an adamant advocate of genre-spanning/pushing music, this track becomes less appetising for my personal music taste with an over-bloated vocal melody, generic trap beats, and uninspiring overall song progression. In case this wasn’t enough of a sonic tangent, our friendly neighbourhood (British male) Siri makes a cameo appearance through a 3 1/3-minute long recital of a man falling in love with the internet. Whilst some critics may smack their lips with salivation at the thought of this ‘Fitter Happier’-esque track, supposedly deconstructing the nature of our modern relationship with technology, it strikes me as a trite and unnecessary one. The beautiful piano/synth instrumentation lingering in the backdrop are undeniably beautiful and enticing, however, I almost wish Healy’s initial plan of incorporating spoken word into this was conducted rather than what came to be.
The slow-burning pop-rock ballad ‘Inside Your Mind’ continues this sonic delve into the slower-tempoed tropes of 80s pop featuring an ensemble of strings, synths, and drums reverberating throughout Healy’s disturbing lyricism on cracking into the mind of an ex-lover. Thankfully, this down-trodden track pales to the wasteside at the hands of the upbeat, earworm-y single ‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’. Reciting his former heroin-addiction, this lavishly optimistic take on 80s synth-pop/new wave is almost entirely introverted with its perturbed lyrical content, ‘collapse my veins, wearing beautiful shoes, it’s not living if it’s not with you’. The infectious guitar riffs and licks are littered throughout the verse and chorus sections which meld beautifully together. My former annoyance with Healy’s nasally voice is thankfully deteriorated as the backing chorus beautifully bolster the melody’s catchiness. This song – fittingly my favourite on the LP – indicates a stark marker on how far The 1975 have come since their under-developed previous 2 LPs – pushing the traditional tropes of pop, incorporating choir backing vocals at choruses, and experimenting with obscure lyrical content in the context of today’s unpredictable postmodern world.
For the last quarter of this LP, Healy and co. decidedly bask in their multitude of influences which are thrown our way: from the folkier feels of ‘Surrounded by Heads and Bodies’, to the John Coltrane-inspired jazz of ‘Mine’, to (Don Henley’s) ‘New York Minute’-esque track ‘I Couldn’t Be More in Love’. As stand alone songs, many of these tracks resemble the band’s admirable retention of pushing their genre’s envelope. As part of the culmination for this LP, however, it doesn’t bode particularly well. This may not be better epitomised by the final track of this hour-long LP experience – ‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’. Unfortunately, it contains all the necessary ingredients for a washed-out Britpop hit: angsty vocals, acoustic refrains, soothing string sections, with an overblown chorus tying them all together. Whilst the track is fairly well produced and mixed, the band’s determination to incorporate yet another genre into their repertoire becomes a bloated one to digest right at the end of this lengthy LP.
At the end of this kaleidoscopic LP and year of 2018, The 1975’s latest batch of songs perfectly resemble the surprising occurrences through this year – from Kanye’s affection for Trump, to the outcry for gun-restriction laws in the U.S. However, it is this seeming ‘positivity’ exuded by the band in the face of such commotion which is undeniably refreshing to any listener’s ears – even those from a previously hyper-condemning one like mine. Whilst the LP’s finished product proves disjointed at times, lyrically and musically, the undeniably audacious sounds strewn throughout Healy’s hour-long epoch marks a stark turning chapter in the band’s current standing. I can only applaud their appetite to push their once-generic sound further into the depths of existential obscurity and wish for the love of God that Healy finds a degree of romantic stability in time for their next LP.
7/10
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