The 1975
Notes On A Conditional Form
Dirty Hit/Polydor
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In a world of increasingly short attention spans and constant distractions, releasing an album of new music with a running time of 81 minutes is a big ask. Especially when said album will be consumed predominately via streaming services. Without the benefit of a double album format that gives natural sequencing breaks to a mammoth collection of 22 aural adventures, immersing yourself into the musical journey that is The 1975’s latest offering Notes On A Conditional Form is a daunting yet ultimately rewarding experience.

For those keeping score, Notes is the fourth part of a planned trilogy of albums and a coupling with 2018’s stellar A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships and takes place in the defined Music For Cars era. Confused? You’re meant to be. Challenging the norm and the expectations of the music scene and its fans is what The 1975 is all about.

Notes is a grab bag of sonics that is as muddled and multifaceted as frontman Matt Healy’s introvert-extrovert existence. As Healy observes in the band’s promo documentary, the expressions on Notes comes from “a desire to be outward followed by a fear of being seen.”

Written and recorded during touring in support for Inquiry, the album was drip fed through a series of single releases that started with the riotous “People” way back in August 2019 as release dates got pushed back time and time again. Was there trouble brewing or just new music being added?

I decided to buck the trend of tuning into the rapid release of singles after the glitchfest post-dubstep laced “Frail State of Mind” dropped last October, choosing instead to greet Notes as an album of new music rather than a collection of new songs smattered between tracks I had known for months.

On “Frail State Of Mind” Healy pines “Go outside? / Seems unlikely” and somehow a paralyzing truth of anxiety and introversion now rings like a COVID-19 alarm during lockdown. But as “Frail State” delivers a sense of comfort and solace in its mix of skipping beats, Notes also offers a score for quarantine.

The album is a collection of genres mashed and mixed from the Brian Eno influenced ambience of “The End (Music for Cars)” and the lush strings of “Streaming” to trips of electronica in “Yeah I Know,” “I Think There’s Something You Should Know” and “Bagsy Not In Net” to the infectious folksy jaunts of “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America” featuring indie darling Phoebe Bridgers, and “Playing On My Mind.”

Then of course there’s the pop inspired dreamy bops like the short-lived “Then Because She Goes,” the strolling bliss of “Me & You Together Song” and the ‘80s nostalgia hit with a modern online obsession that is “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know).”

The album holds several highlights especially in the latter half. The uplifting revaluation of one’s ego deconstructed in “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied,” where Healy riles against a public person fostered by his expressive lyrics, is the song that is sure to have throngs of concertgoers (remember concerts?) singing along.

The dreamy soul of the Temptations tweaked sampled “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)” is a strong hit of sunshine. And the sonic shifting ambience of “Having No Head” is drummer/producer George Daniel’s shining moment in an album filled with shimmery shiny production.

Songs like “The Birthday Party” and “Roadkill” with their reflections of an accessible life, fame and celebrity feel like two sides of the same coin, one skewing more towards rock, the other to laid-back electronica.

Then there’s the emotionally raw moments like the piano driven ballad “Don’t Worry,” a duet between father, Tim Healy, and son, and the achingly sweet and heartfelt album closer “Guys,” that offers a reflective appreciation for the journey Healy and his bandmates have been on.

The sequencing of the album keeps likeminded compositions separated, the experience is akin to having multiple tabs on your browser open as you constantly flick between different rabbit holes you’ve fallen down. It’s a little disorientating at times but you get a feeling its by design.

Perhaps The 1975 are offering the varying styles and moods on Notes as an album to be deconstructed and rebuilt to each of their audiences’ leanings. Want to create a mind drifting collection of ambience and electronica? Slice it this way and there you go. Want to dial things up with some rockers? Grab this lot here. Want to bask in the baring of one’s soul against bare arrangements? Take this, this and that.

In fact, in a world where shuffle might be the default, this could be an album that will further reveal its gifts of brilliance with each newly sequenced incarnation.

For now, it is an album that will challenge some listeners and reward others. I feel it will be loved and loathed in equal quantities. The one thing that is for sure is it shouldn’t be ignored.

Notable Tracks: “Having No Head” | “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” | “Me And You Together” | “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied”

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