It's always hard going into an album like this one. An album by a band that have had plenty of positive reviews thrown their way, and yet has slightly slipped through for you personally and you've ended up not giving them all that much of your time. That's The 1975 for me. An act I've only ever found the time to enjoy in small doses. That doesn't mean to say that I wasn't listening when 'Chocolate' and 'The Sound' were generating a lot of hype in the UK. And while those are great songs, they did not give me the motivation to check out either their self titled debut, or their follow up 'I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It'.
But then 'Give Yourself A Try' happened. It did take an awful long time to grow on me, but once it clicked, Matthew Healy's message to a younger generation that admire his music to forget about what other people think of them and stop trying to change themselves in order to fit in with what could be considered the social norm, and simply try and accept themselves for who they are ended up having a surprising amount of weight. Combined with having a lot of small, intricate details in the writing, and being a well produced song in its own right, I was actually kind of looking forward to a new album from The 1975.
But then you get the album title: 'A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships'. I went from looking forward to this album, to being genuinely excited when I heard this is what they were going to be calling it. It almost sounds like it was made for me. A deconstruction of the online environment and how socially anxious teenagers can see it as an escape and an opportunity to bond with others outside of real life situations, and how venerable people (not just teenagers) can be prayed on by people looking to exploit them. See my review of MØ's 'Forever Neverland' to understand why that's a concept that is likely to appeal to me.
My only hope going into this album is that it wouldn't be brief as the title suggests that it will be. I was looking forward to a layered, well written deconstruction all framed to address the problems with the online teenage relationship. Did we get that with 'A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships'?
Yes and no. This is not the first time this has happened this year. The 1975 have delivered an album that I did not expect, and am not sure if I even wanted, and, just like With Confidence before them, still manage to deliver a detailed, thematically dense if not cohesive album. You see, however much The 1975 discuss issues of youth culture and teenagers in their lyrics, the thematic arc of this album is broader than I was personally hoping for: relationships as a whole. Whether that be the typical teenager-social media relationship on 'The Man Who Married a Robot / Love Theme' and in the subtext of 'Give Yourself A Try' and 'Sincerity Is Scary', or how young minds can struggle to make the right decisions in relationships like how frontman Matty Healy admits to cheating on his girlfriend on 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME' or a few songs later on 'Be My Mistake' when Healy tries to hook up with another girl as he struggles to acknowledge the fact that in order to find 'the one', he is going to make some mistakes, even if those mistakes weigh hard on the young mind.
The album does get more distinctly personal in its final third. 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' tackles Healy's issues with heroine addiction before 'Surrounded By Heads And Bodies' where we get an underwritten, ambiguous look into the rehabilitation process.
But then you get the songs that more aimed at society as a whole like 'Love It If We Made It' where Healy lists everything he thinks is wrong with society, with the implication on the hook being that Healy would be impressed if humanity makes it through. 'I Like America & America Likes Me' falls into similar territory with a strong message as Healy voices his opinion on guns in America.
But then you get a song clearly directed at the band teenage audience: 'Give Yourself A Try'. The message being to trust yourself and who you are and what you stand for rather than some filtered version of yourself that you project onto social media. One line did stand out to me, though: 'Jane took her own life at sixteen / She was the kid who had the box tattooed on her arm'. What was in that box, no one will ever know.
But that moves us onto the production, and it might honestly be where this album lets me down a little bit. Don't get me wrong, the razer tight guitar that anchors the main melody on 'Give Yourself A Try' is awesome, but when the band use a similar tone on the sluggish 'Inside Your Mind', it doesn't fit anywhere near as well, no matter how many effects you throw on it. Or take 'I Couldn't Be More In Love', a song that could have worked if Healy wasn't pushed into a vocal range that really does not flatter his voice.
Then there's the instrumentally meandering songs 'How To Draw / Petrichor' and 'Inside Your Mind'. I would throw 'The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme' into that category, if the narrative itself didn't ring as true as it ended up doing for me.
I certainly don't love every song on this album, probably pushing it just short of greatness for me, but when the production clicks, this album is a force to be reckoned with. The slick watery groove on 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME', the intimate vocal pickup emphasising the vulnerability on 'Be My Mistake', and the stunningly well balanced lush pop hook on 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' are all highlights here.
And I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't mention the closing track 'I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)' for it's comments on meme culture connected with the idea of death, and even if I'm not a fan of the blaring hook, the production on the first verse is breath-taking with it's minimalist melody partnered with Healy's almost hopeless vocal delivery. Moments like this are more than enough to redeem the stiff, lumbering tracks like 'Love It If We Made It' and 'Sincerity Is Scary'.
In conclusion, it's almost ironic that inconsistences across the board muted this album's impact for me. If the album was more brief (as the title of the album suggests) we could have got a more consistent and therefore more impactful project overall, but, as it is, I still enjoyed this album quite a bit, even for its floors.
3.5 / 5
Best Songs: 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)', 'Be My Mistake' 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME', 'Give Yourself A Try'
Worst Songs: 'Inside Your Mind', 'How To Draw / Petrichor'
No comments:
Post a Comment