A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
by The 1975

From Brad1770 TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/11/2019 11:33 | #229485 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

The 1975's 3rd album 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships ' is quite simply a stunning album and clearly one of 2018's best albums.

The album is a perfect commentary on the condition of the always online connected millennial and their struggles. For proof look no further than this line from "Give Yourself a Try"

'I was 25 and afraid to go outside / a millennial that baby-boomers like'

This line resonated so strongly with me as my eldest daughter is a 19 yo millennial and she is literally afraid to go outside as her life is lived vicariously staring at a screen

Any commentary that this is anything other than a great album is straight up wrong , it has so many great tracks: the pillar track "Give Youself a Try" , the beautiful acoustics of " Be My Mistake" , the dripping sarcasm and online commentary of "The Man Who Married a Robot" , the absolutely beautiful strings of "Inside Your Mind" , the smokey piano bar ballad "Mine" to jaw dropping closer "I always Wanna Die" . No , this is a cracking release

This album is part A in a 2 part release with part B 'Notes on a Conditional Form' arriving in 2019 , we wait with bated breath for its arrival

This is what music should sound like in 2018 - well produced , smart , sassy , angry, confused , love lorn and varied like a mixed tape

Brilliant (Edited)

Best album by The 1975 so far and definitely their most consistent. They continue to experiment with different soundscapes and dynamics very effectively with several songs even having a jazzy feel to them. Topical, humorous, yet insightful lyrics that are easy to relate to. Definitely one of my favorites of 2018

Favorite tracks: Love It If We Made It, TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME, It's Not Living (If It's Not With You), I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) (Edited)

From IgnacioJoaquin 02/10/2019 08:51 | #231718 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This album tackles a lot with more than mixed results.

The first half irreparably sinks and taints this record's chance of beign consider a masterpiece or "This generation's OK Computer" almost immediatly.
After the intro, any kind of mood is inexplicably destroyed by Give Yourself A Try, every trace of dignity and musicianship leaves completely with TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME and the album just gives up, comes to a halt and throws itself in the garbage.
Luckily, Love It If We Made It saves this trainwreck just in time, but it's quickly stopped by Be My Mistake (not an awful track, but mediocre nonetheless), which is then upstaged by Sincerity Is Scary, ending the first half on a soulful high note.
This is a symptom of a consistent problem with the album: it's inconsistency. We jump from great to awful in less than five minutes, and it's not only jarring, but kinda weird, I mean, how can the flow be this fragile? How can the quality be all over the place like this, three albums in? It's almost as distracting as the fact that someone thought that America Likes Me should be on the album at all.

All this mess is accentuated more by the fact that most tracks in the second half* put a lot more effort and nuance into their theming and aesthetic trappings regarding their portrayal of present day politics, paranoia, discontent, love & loss dichotomies and the glamorization of depression, etc.

*Except for I Like America and The Man Who Married A Robot, which are awful, surface level dumpster fires and, are two of the worst songs on the entire band's catalogue.

Not only the lyrics of the final stretch of the album are an improvement over the first half, but also the songwriting and the cohesion of the music, especially on songs like I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes), Mine or It's Not Living (If It's Not With You).
The grooves are tighter, the strings are lusher and darker, the production is more colorful, vibrant, triumphant and anthemic, the lyrics are more poignant, the performances are livelier and actually introspective, even blissful and the emotions are way more genuine, unadulterated and heartfelt.

This album is ultimately, a touching experience unlike any other, that only this band could provide at this time and place, one that I still come back to and enjoy to a degree.
I just think that this album could've benefitted from more focus on the artistic side it was trying to present, rather than preserving the band's pop appeal.

Fave tracks: Love It If We Made It, I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes), Sincerity Is Scary, It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)

Least fave tracks: I Like America & America Likes Me, Give Yourself A Try, TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME, The Man Who Married A Robot/ Love Theme (Edited)

From Cargusbralem 12/06/2018 23:43 | #226375 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This album called my attention for being like 15 rating points above their other releases. If this is this band's best album, I really don't wanna hear the rest of their discography.

People calling it "this era's OK Computer" just wow. Is it just because of their pretentious "The Man who married a Robot" track? Are you freaking kidding me? They also ripped off Joy Division on the second track, with the exact same melody just over different chords. So, we start off with an auto-tune intro and a rip-off song. Great start boys.

All anger aside, the album has a handful of decent songs. I did enjoy "Love It If We Made It" a bit. Strong vocals and lyrics, along with very aesthetic pulsating synth chords. "Sincerity is Scary" is also an okay track, with a pretty cool video. I also found the 40s/50s style on "Mine" kind of intriguing.

The rest of the songs I haven't mentioned feel pretty generic and unmemorable and I don't really care for them. I'm not going to hate on them because maybe it just happens not to be my cup of tea.

I think this album tries to compensate the lack of songwriting skills with overproduction and obvious references/rip-offs (whichever you want to call it) to veteran bands.

They don't have all of the writing ability or any of the musical ability to pull off this album. The 80's pop revival aesthetic is horrible after 2 songs.

It's Not Living is a good song, and the rest is just terrible. (Edited)