A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is The 1975's boldest album yet. A sprawling, 15 track journey into a strange yet familiar place, ABIIOR covers an incredible amount of ground in just under an hour. The 1975 takes us on a tour of the modern era, the world of the internet and trap music, while incorporating more timeless and classic sounds, like jazz and ballads. You can hear the 80's, the 90's, the 00's, and today's sound all in the boundaries of the album. It's an ambitious and risky move, the entirety of the album. In an interview with Beats 1 on Apple Music, frontman Matt Healy explained that they don't want fans calling them a rock band anymore - they're a pop band, making pop records. While some people might have issues with this, it's a very honest statement from the group, and an accurate one. The indie-britrock band of the first The 1975 album is gone, and the emerging persona is one that has grown exponentially. Change for artists is always important, and while sometimes not well received initially, very necessary for a band to continue thriving in the world of popular music. This album shows the band's ability to embrace this new direction and focus for the band without compromising their integrity or the integrity of the music. That's a feat not easily achieved, and many bands have seen themselves fade from quality music into the blur of mainstream pop music (I'm looking at you, Maroon 5).
It's hard to pinpoint this album, genre-wise. And that's okay. Genre, in mine and other's opinions, is a dying breed. I think the blending and melding of genres is excellent and exciting and the way new musical ideas and boundaries are birthed and explored. Obviously, genres will exist for some time - but band's like The 1975 are doing good work in coloring outside the lines. Some of the music falls within the expected framework for the band. "Give Yourself A Try" and "It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)" feel the strongest of The 1975, the most reminiscent of their previous songs and soundspaces they've explored before. Not to say that they're unimaginative or boring - "Give Yourself A Try" is one of the best songs of the album, with the gritty guitar line, electronic/noisy drums, and Matty's autotuned vocals coming together to create a simultaneously relatable and exciting track.
The deeper you delve into the album, the more you find new ideas and places previously unexplored by the band. "Love It We Made It", the strongest song of the album, is this haunting and chaotic piece that showcases a very raw and intense side of Healy's vocals we haven't seen before, perhaps since their early days. "I Like America & America Likes Me", which started as a tribute/riffing off of "Soundcloud Rap", ends up being a very unexpected foray into trap that still somehow works for the band. "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME" gives off an ever so slight reggaeton vibe and sees the band at their poppy peak; the lyrical content does give the track much more depth, tackling the subject of cheating in a relationship.
The last four songs of the album feel complete as a section, a whole piece that flows together in a way that I find hard to listen to them separately. "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies" is simply stunning; this beautiful, eerie piece that's so stripped yet holds such a strength and lasting power. The fact that it was written for a women Healy met while he was in rehab makes it all the more bittersweet. "Mine" emerges from the sort of mysticism presented with the last track and slows things down with some really, really jazzy sounds. Yet it still works. "I Couldn't Be More in Love" has a gospel feel, especially on the latter choruses, and "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is reminiscent of late 90's/early 00's alternative, specifically in the intro with the acoustic guitar and in the chorus with the way the instrumental kicks it up and expands into this wall of noise.
I think the most remarkable thing about all these songs, all these examples, is that despite the number of directions the band goes, they still retain their identity and their sound. That's something that's really admirable. I think that this is the band's best album to date in terms of conceptual and lyrical content - time will tell whether this album can hold it's own against their sophomore release (one of my favorite albums of the last few years), i like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it. I don't know if the diversity of sound will create an album I'll continually come back to or just specific songs that I'll enjoy. But the most baffling thing of all is that the band is currently working on and planning to release another album in May of 2019: Notes on a Conditional Form. What that album will hold, we'll have to wait and see. But I am pleased and will be thoroughly enjoying this new work of art from one of the world's most promising acts.
Rating: 4/5
Recommended: "Love It If We Made It", "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies", "Mine", "Give Yourself A Try"
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