What were you doing in September 2013?
The 1975 were releasing their first album, a self-titled delight of a debut, which featured tracks (and eventual hits) such as “Sex,” “Robbers,” “Girls,” and “Chocolate.” It wasn’t long before the 1975 achieved international popularity. Their second album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (2016) reached No. 1 in the US. The group became famous for two things: their nostalgic, 80s synth-pop style (as heard in “The Sound,” “Somebody Else,” and “Love Me”) and their lead singer, Matty Healy.
Matty Healy is everything you’d expect and simultaneously impossible to stereotype. He has a mop of dark hair, a pouty face, and a lanky build—the epitome of a pop-punk star. But he is more than that. He is conflicted. Like many millennials, Healy has struggled with his own hypocrisy; drug addiction, sobriety, and relapse; and the general state of global panic. He is experimental, outspoken, and self-deprecating. He’s not exactly a role model, and he isn’t looking to be one. And yet, despite his wishes, he has become a powerful voice in music and culture.
The 1975’s third album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships (2018), was far more exploratory than its predecessors. It kept the overarching 80s-electronic theme, but it introduced a softer, more singer-songwriter-y style (as in “Be My Mistake” and “Inside Your Mind”). Its anthems included “Love It If We Made It” and “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME.”
After A Brief Inquiry, Matt Healy announced that the 1975 would essentially die out with the decade—that fans should expect no more new music upon 2020’s arrival. He soon disregarded that statement and started formulating Notes On A Conditional Form, which the band began teasing in late 2019, six or so months before its set drop date.
Notes On A Conditional Form was officially released on May 22nd, 2020 after it had already been leaked online, an all-too-frequent occurrence as of late (and a fate that Drake’s Take Care, Beyonce’s 4, and One Direction’s Midnight Memories similarly suffered). Fans immediately struggled to process some of Matty’s rather disconcerting, satirical lyrics (“Man in the gift shop called me a fag / I feel up my tucked-up erection” and “Well, I’m gonna get a gun but it’s for my protection”). They also commented on the album’s borderline-ridiculous length of 22 songs (totaling 80 minutes), some of which are completely lyric-less and seemingly pointless.
Despite the album’s potential disappointments, Healy is not discouraged. “Some people don’t really like it,” he says in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I think it’s our best record.” While “best” is debatable, it’s undeniably the most sonically diverse record they’ve released. NOACF draws inspiration from R&B (“Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied” and “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)”), Americana (“Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America” and “Roadkill”), Screamo (“People”), and EDM (“Yeah I Know,” “Shiny Collarbone,” and “What Should I Say”), all while maintaining the “signature” 1975 sound (“If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”). [Note: The band denies actually having a signature sound, referring to it as an “anomaly” instead.]
A follow-up to A Brief Inquiry, NOACF is evidently more honest, too. On the newest version of “The 1975,” the opening track on each album, we hear Greta Thunberg speaking on the climate crisis, followed by Healy’s own plea in “People” (“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”). In “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied,” Healy begs for clarity (“Life feels like a lie / I need something to be true / Is there anybody out there?”). In “Tonight” and “Playing On My Mind,” Healy reminds us of the apparent randomness of romance (“Funny how it works out, innit?” and “But I won’t get clothes online ‘cause I get worried about the fit / But that rule don’t apply concerning my relationships”).
The album’s closing track, “Guys,” is the most authentic, emotionally vulnerable song we’ve seen yet—it’s a dedication to friendship. For Healy specifically, it’s a tribute to his band-mates, who have been with him for most of his life. “The moment that we started a band was the best thing that ever happened, and I wish that we could do it again. It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Matty Healy sings, reminiscing fondly on his musical career. This begs the question: is “Guys” the 1975’s subtle way of saying goodbye?
featured photo courtesy of the 1975
