Album
The 1975
A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
November 30 2018 (Dirty Hit)
9.5/10
Words: Ali Mack
With their third much anticipated album, The 1975’s follow up to the preposterously titled ‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’, co-producers Matty Healy and drummer George Daniel seem to have pushed just the right format button.
‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ isn’t your everyday ensemble of random ditties or loosely connected rhymes, but a work that is at times penetrating and lyrically sharply observed; at others, subtle, sparse and emotional. As its title suggests, the internet plays a role as much as it figures so largely in all areas of our lives; how it fits in, and how it is seen through the eyes and penmanship of Healy, post-drug rehab. As do world affairs, love, pain, drug addiction, depression - the whole damn thing - and serves them up here below a raft of electronic beats, synths and powerful melodics.
'Love It If We Made It' with its direct lines, "Fucking in a car/Shooting heroin/Saying controversial things just for the hell of it”, intense vocal delivery, is Healy being both observant as much as much as confrontational, as he pours out political statements and the repeated words of the US president, “I moved on her like a bitch". Reflecting harsh life events (“Write it on a piece of stone/A beach of drowning three-year-olds/Rest in peace Lil Peep”), its production is funky, electronic and equally sharp.
‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’ and ‘Give Yourself A Try’ both hit with power pop chords; the former, not a love ode to a person, but about Healy's addictive relationship with heroin (“All I do is sit and think about you/If I knew what you’d do/Collapse my veins wearing beautiful shoes/It’s not living if it’s not with you”). Sincere and honest in its undisputed truth, it is confessional and conveyed in the typical style of the wordsmith. ‘Give Yourself A Try’ too - which deals with the suicide of a young fan - is earnest and thoughtfully directed.
The electronic pop of ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ and the Siri-voiced ‘The Man Who Married A Robot’, which tells the story of a lonely man and his love affair with the internet, both owe much to the production; in contrast, 'I Couldn’t Be More In Love' (an 80s style ballad), 'Mine' (an unconventional jazz-infused love song), and 'Sincerity is Scary' (more laid-back jazz-pop) are arguably the three weakest tracks, sounding lightweight in composition to those surrounding them.
The album closes on the anthemic 'I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)'. The “And I love it if we made it” line of hope is juxtaposed next to “modernity has failed us”, lending both determination in vocals against a certain despondency for the future.
With 15 tracks of almost an hour's duration, a brief album it isn't. But a worthwhile one it is.
‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’ and ‘Give Yourself A Try’ both hit with power pop chords; the former, not a love ode to a person, but about Healy's addictive relationship with heroin (“All I do is sit and think about you/If I knew what you’d do/Collapse my veins wearing beautiful shoes/It’s not living if it’s not with you”). Sincere and honest in its undisputed truth, it is confessional and conveyed in the typical style of the wordsmith. ‘Give Yourself A Try’ too - which deals with the suicide of a young fan - is earnest and thoughtfully directed.
The electronic pop of ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ and the Siri-voiced ‘The Man Who Married A Robot’, which tells the story of a lonely man and his love affair with the internet, both owe much to the production; in contrast, 'I Couldn’t Be More In Love' (an 80s style ballad), 'Mine' (an unconventional jazz-infused love song), and 'Sincerity is Scary' (more laid-back jazz-pop) are arguably the three weakest tracks, sounding lightweight in composition to those surrounding them.
The album closes on the anthemic 'I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)'. The “And I love it if we made it” line of hope is juxtaposed next to “modernity has failed us”, lending both determination in vocals against a certain despondency for the future.
With 15 tracks of almost an hour's duration, a brief album it isn't. But a worthwhile one it is.
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