The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

It was with The 1975’s second album, 2016’s ‘i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it’, that Matty Healy and co pushed their band from a massively popular yet largely base-level operation into genuinely important statement-purveyors. Musically, the record was a manic, scattered, genre-spanning canvas but remained tied together by the frontman’s frenzied takes on relationships, drugs, and navigating life as a young person in such a paranoid era. Sure, the bubblegum hits remained - ‘The Sound’ is pure, euphoric chart fodder - but unlike ‘Chocolate’, ‘Sex’ and ‘Girls’ from their debut, it was flanked by deep dives into the human psyche and the darkest corners of our minds.

For a band so young - if immensely popular - it seemed like an album so broad in scale and scope that it was impossible to follow. But, as the tour for ‘i like it when you sleep…’ thundered towards its conclusion, and Matty’s place as an icon was quickly being cemented, they already pointed towards their next steps. ‘1st June’ was thrown about at the last show of the second album’s tour - a headline slot at Latitude Festival 2017 - and though the frontman was in the middle of what would be later revealed as a deep-rooted addiction that would lead to a trip to rehab via equine therapy, the next steps of The 1975 were already stretching out in front of them. Never ones to slow down or take the easy road, it was then revealed in advance of the 1st June deadline that the ‘Music For Cars’ era would include not one album, but two. The first of these is ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’.

Two albums wrapping up a truly exciting era from the most boundary-pushing bands right now in a pair of easily digestible chunks, right? Wrong. ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ isn’t simple, or straightforward, and its points aren’t particularly easy to hear. But that’s not how it feels to be a young person in 2018, and on ‘A Brief Inquiry…’, The 1975 transmit how it does feel immaculately.

The five songs released in advance of the album hold it together beautifully. ‘Give Yourself A Try’ circles around a pop-punk guitar riff and both harbour lyrics quipping about modern debates and confront the suicide of a young fan within the blink of an eye - neither are made to feel contrived. ‘Love It If We Made It’, meanwhile, is the cacophonous centrepiece, Matty barking scattered political statements over sharp, harsh production that explodes into a funky strut for its chorus, which, repeating the track’s title, claws some hope from the mire.

‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ is a welcome respite in the form of three-minutes of pop heaven, while ‘Sincerity Is Scary’ bemoans a culture that encourages people to mask their pain over fluttering jazz, and ‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’ is a heart-thumping pop epic that confronts Matty’s heroin addiction head-on, while managing to be both an intimately personal account and a relatable, transferrable statement. They provide the anchor of an album that far from ignores the problems facing young people face-on, but plays out as a soundtrack and guide through the often disorientating, anxiety-inducing path.