“It is now time for civil disobedience, it is time to rebel.” - Greta Thunberg
Proceeding a calculated 5-minute speech orated by the renowned environmentalist Greta Thunberg, the English indie-pop band (if this can be said of them anymore) The 1975 launch into their audacious 4th LP, Notes on a Conditional Form. Will this finally conclude its sister LP? Let's take a look.
Forming the second part of their 2-part series, beyond their well-received 2018 LP A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, the politically-charged, Matt Healy-centered follow-up has finally arrived during lockdown turmoil. Could this politically-oriented speech titillate a new chapter to Matt Healy & Co.? Will Healy finally find romantic ownership? Will the shortcomings of the previous LP be alleviated through its behemoth sister LP? The brief answer to all of these: not quite.
Blur-esque effervescence ensues an insatiable alt-rock calamity in the LP’s primary single, ‘People’. Charged in its politically-driven calls to “stop fucking with the kids”, the inception to this LP bears a comparatively different sheen to that of the previous round's softer touch imbued by ‘Give Yourself a Try’. Further to this, another of the follow-up singles, ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’, similarly provides a deep interconnectedness with nature - undeniably calling for a stronger respect for preserving our natural habitat amidst its euphoric, alt-country backdrop.
The 1975 thematically, however, expand far, far beyond the basis of environmental awareness. As we’ve seen countless times through Healy’s past 3 LPs, personal romantic relationships take a stronghold on the majority of tracks on this 80 minute odyssey. Much like a lost prepubescent teenager, Healy inevitably endeavours in these insidious tropes in ‘Then Because She Goes’, ‘Me & You Together Song’ and ‘Bagsy Not In Net’ without a trace of a concluding realisation or moment of real reckoning for personal redemption.
Admirably, the strength in friendships and familial relations play an equally important role across ‘The Birthday Song’ and ‘Guys’, as his processing of the real world post-rehab comes into full effect. On the final track of this 22-track LP, Healy’s realisation “you guys are the best thing that ever happened to me” is the closest offering to any sort of conclusion. Due to the painfully ADHD-type thematic switchings, however, it’s as if Healy wrote down a variety of themes onto pieces of paper, threw them into a hat, and blindly picked at them as the writing process continued.
Musically speaking, Conditional Form proves itself to be frustratingly exaggerated. Totting up a minimum of 8 genres spread across an 80-minute piece, mathematically we’re exposed to at least 1 genre every 10 minutes - a somewhat laughable statistic even by today’s standards of the intrepid music industry. Aside from the alt-rock and alt-country nods, Healy & Co also venture into the world of Oneohtrix Point Never/Burial-inspired ambient-IDM through the many interludes and instrumentals peppered onto this sonic feast. Yet when the IDM landscapes begin to take shape through ‘Streaming’ and ‘Having No Head’ their impressive arrangements imminently fall to the wayside of a predominantly ‘alt-pop’ LP with little effort to remain cohesive with the remainder of tracks.
Fortunately, there are encrusted diamonds amongst the wreckage of sonic delusions: ‘Me & You Together Song’s dreamy slathering of indie-pop, ‘Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied’s soulful ballad-pop a-la Macy Gray and Dido, as well as the inexplicably infectious antics of the 80’s new wave track ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’ - even enforcing an excruciatingly apt sax solo, too. While ‘People’ executed a gripping shock-factor, the rest of these tracks admirably portray The 1975’s ability to master such nostalgic genres, albeit muddied in the superfluous eccentricities of Healy’s mind.
Yet for all the highs of these singles fronting this odyssean LP, I’m afraid my initial conclusion from 2018 still stands: the narcissistic mind of Healy grappling with a multitude of genres and themes has resulted in an overblown project offering little conclusion in the way of its predecessor. After a tiresome 80 minutes, we’re instead left wondering - is this inciting civil disobedience to save our planet? Or stressing the importance of friendships? Love conquers all? Ironically, the LP is the epitome of a ‘conditional mind’ in its finished product, signifying a waiting period which will have to be prolonged in order for The 1975's muddied cement to solidify in their next chapter.
6/10
The 1975's latest LP, Notes On A Conditional Form, is out now and can be found here.
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