Project Description
The 1975
‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’
(Album Review)
Reviewer: Chelsea Wood
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Unlike The 1975’s 2016 release, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, the band’s third and most recent release, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, isn’t filled to the brim with Easter eggs and metaphors. A Brief Inquiry… shows development in how the band, and singer Matty Healy specifically, are willing to share aspects of their lives; and if you’ve watched any interviews with Healy recently, then you’d have already captured this brutal honesty. This album reflects relationships built through an online world; our relationships with one another, with the internet, our relationships with social media, and even Healy’s relationship with drugs. But it’s not dressed up or hidden by the jazz and gospel elements that the album’s songs are infused with, rather these ideas are emphasised by them. Simply put, it’ll make you either dance, or cry.
The album opener track, The 1975, is a reworking of the title track of their debut. As we get to each album, this first track has become a tool to identify the cycle’s sound. In this case, the robotic synth vocal shows the technological approach to the album, with these synths being carried over into Give Yourself a Try. A track about reflection, Healy reflects upon what he’s done over the years. The suicide of a fan is touched on and introduces the themes of survival and death, which are revisited later on in closing track, I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes), a song that takes 90’s rock and reflects how death is a part of life.
The album’s energy is kept on a high through Tootimetootimetootime, a fun song about infidelity and the difficulties of dating, while How to Draw/Petrichor gives us a break from the upbeat before rebuilding through a static energy.
For me, the album as a whole can be described in one vital line of Love It If We Made It: ‘Modernity has failed us’. Love It If We Made It has Matty somewhat passionately pleading with us. The song is a commentary on the current state of society; covering everything from politics to pop culture references.
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The first of A Brief Inquiry’s love songs, soft ballad, Be My Mistake, pulls on emotions and will break your heart with its devastatingly beautiful tone, similar to how Somebody Else on I Like It When You Sleep… did. Its beauty comes from the depths of loneliness and guilt, while staying simple and matter of fact and to be honest it’s just plain heartbreaking.
As a recovery from this heartbreak, we end up skipping along to neo jazz infused track, Sincerity is Scary. Between bopping and singing along with the gospel chorus, we’re at a track that uses playful jazz to highlight how easy it is to mask ourselves; being sincere is scary because it makes us vulnerable whereas living in irony would be a much easier existence.
I Like America & America Likes Me is served through autotune and a synth base. This technological vibe is carried over into The Man Who Married a Robot, a story of the relationship between a man and the internet, told completely through Siri.
Inside Your Mind leans back into a ballad with a rock edge; a track that runs reminiscent of me Me from their debut album. Colour and life are brought back in with It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You, while Healy sings of his past relationship with Heroin. It’s honest, refreshing and something to dance to, without over glorifying his love of the substance. Surrounded by Heads and Bodies is delicate and dreamy, while Mine brings romance and maturity, taking on a traditional jazz format. Towards the end of the album I Couldn’t Be More In Love brings back the 80’s power ballad with a belter chorus that sounds like it should be on a soundtrack somewhere.
A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships shows The 1975 at their best to date. It’s their most cohesive body of work and perhaps most honest.
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