Instead of issuing another state-of-the-world album, The 1975 have somehow put out an album made for introspection and headphone listening and dancing around your living room, something deep and sprawling and occasionally silly to dig deep into over many listens, during which your favourite track will shift on a daily basis.
Chasing excitement down rabbit holes and with a sense of gleeful freedom, ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ is a lot of things all at once, but it’s never boring.
No matter how you take it apart, with Notes the 1975 have offered their most maximalist statement, and, as ever, the ultimate thrill lies in wondering where they'll go next.
One could say this record is borderline Sign O The Times meets Achtung Baby, as it is genre-diverse, thought-provoking, and rocks out all at the same time.
Besides being the most genre-bending collection they’ve released, it’s also the most painstakingly human album in their repertoire.
Notes On A Conditional Form capitalises on this ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ approach in surprising ways.
Notes On a Conditional Form isn’t the most important thing in the world right now, however it’s easily the most interesting and confusing major release by an arena-selling guitar band in a long while. The UK’s best band continue to delight and bewilder in equal measure.
Notes on a Conditional Form is a strange album that will be undoubtedly be alienating to some. However, for a band of this size to end their run with something this ambitious is worth at least some praise. Whether you like it or not, there will undoubtedly be a song or two that will stick with you.
Notes On A Conditional Form is a daunting yet ultimately rewarding experience.
Notes On A Conditional Form is not just an album — it’s an experience, filled with ups and downs as the band try to navigate their newfound sound.
At 22 tracks and 80 minutes long, Notes on a Conditional Form is the band’s longest and arguably most daring record, yet it is also their most understated work—a reflective and oddly sober re-evaluation of Healy’s persona which contains much of his funniest and most wistful material to date.
Notes on a Conditional Form is an explosion of ideas—some bad, but many good, all worth getting lost in for at least a short while.
It appears The 1975 tried to make a thought-provoking album which also tries to make people forgot and be disengaged with the world and its precariousness. Sadly, despite the evident sound engineering and deft musicality throughout; these two antithetical concepts do not sit well together on Notes on a Conditional Form.
There are moments of brilliance ... Had they filtered the cacophony of ideas a little more, ‘Notes…’ could have matched ‘A Brief Inquiry…’ as a modern-day classic; as it stands, its legacy looks set to be slightly more conditional.
It might not live up to its lofty goals, but the sheer amount of daring on Notes on a Conditional Form solidifies the four guitar-wielding dudes of the 1975 as the biggest, boldest, and brashest purveyors of something resembling what we used to call rock n’ roll.
Ultimately, Notes On A Conditional Form is an album that shows The 1975 indulging in their best and worst tendencies. There’s some fantastic stuff here, but you have to dig for it a little too much.
Though it ends with the balmy sentiment of “Don’t Worry” and “Guys” (The 1975’s love song to itself), this is an 80-minute shrug of the shoulders, a rudderless surrender to the flow.
Notes on a Conditional Form is a fantastic 12 track, 45-minute album. It’s just a shame that The 1975 decided to make it into a 22 track, 80 minute one.
A Brief Inquiry is a hard album to top, and Notes is, perhaps, the most disjointed and unclassifiable of the 1975’s works. It serves best, perhaps, as a long and intermittently lovely outro to that defining record.
The 1975 have created a very bloated version of A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, which means that it has some really impressive moments of electronic experimentation and upbeat indie-rock gems, but also a large swath of songs that could have been left to a future EP or b-side collection.
It makes Notes on a Conditional Form a curious thing, an album whose flaws are inherent in what it sets out to do: music for the no-filter generation, with all the good and bad that entails.
Notes On a Conditional Form seems more preoccupied with perception and the potential to legacy-build than it does with lasting songs. It’s an album that would never have been made without the cameras rolling or thumbs tweeting.
Notes On A Conditional Form is a jarring and fatiguing listening experience.
There's very little rhyme or reason to Notes on a Conditional Form.
Flat, directionless and inessential, where its forebears felt vital, worthy of devoting a life to. For a band with proven dexterity in deftly capturing the nuances and quick changes of contemporary conversation, it is disheartening to witness them with nearly nothing of note to say.
A 22-track-long parade of stream-of-conscious self-indulgence ... Perhaps if they'd cared a little more the result wouldn't have been such a smug farrago in which each track grates against the next like rusted gears.
Here come the Kid A comparrisons I guess.
What just happened?
No seriously, what just happened? Let's take you back BEFORE I listened to the album, where I felt terror. Pure unbridled terror.
I am, admittedly, a huge fan of The 1975. While Matt Healy can seem pretensious at times, I still love the bands blend of indie pop, indie rock, electronica, ambeint, jazz and all the other genres they try to tackle. They are, without a doubt, the band I WANT to be.
They are the band that just seem ... read more
Welp, here it is guys. The most predictable fucking thing you're gonna see all fucking day.
That's right! The dude who has sported Matty as my name and picture for like about a year now loves the new record...
Wow.
Truly surprising.
Bias out of the way, let me try and tell you why I'm right, as I clearly always, or usually, am.
Let's answer the age old question:
CAN SOMETHING BE A SLOPPY FUCKING MESS BUT STILL ALSO, SIMULTANEOUSLY, A MASTERPIECE?
Well, let's get into it. Yes, ... read more
Unquestionably Notes On A Conditional Form is a daring album that shows a bit too much ambition in my opinion. It seems that it actually contains 2 intertwined albums that confront each other and try to speak louder than the other one, when they should rather complement each other . You have on one side some basic but catchy pop rock passages, then on the other side there's all the "avant-garde" part with experimentations mainly hidden in an electronic form.
Ironically I'm not ... read more
not a 10 but showing some appreciation for if you’re too shy (let me know). honestly i think it’s my favorite song of all time. every time i turn it on it just does something to me
The song If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know) CARRIES this album, and is the only reason why this album is not a 5/10 tbh.
1 | The 1975 4:55 | 56 |
2 | People 2:38 | 85 |
3 | The End (Music For Cars) 2:30 | 71 |
4 | Frail State of Mind 3:53 | 85 |
5 | Streaming 1:32 | 64 |
6 | The Birthday Party 4:45 | 78 |
7 | Yeah I Know 4:13 | 71 |
8 | Then Because She Goes 2:07 | 75 |
9 | Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America 4:24 | 80 |
10 | Roadkill 2:55 | 71 |
11 | Me & You Together Song 3:27 | 87 |
12 | I Think There's Something You Should Know 4:00 | 77 |
13 | Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied 3:38 | 75 |
14 | Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy) 4:07 | 79 |
15 | Shiny Collarbone 2:50 | 68 |
16 | If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know) 5:19 | 92 |
17 | Playing On My Mind 3:24 | 71 |
18 | Having No Head 6:04 | 71 |
19 | What Should I Say 4:06 | 72 |
20 | Bagsy Not In Net 2:26 | 60 |
21 | Don’t Worry 2:48 | 65 |
22 | Guys 4:29 | 85 |
#10 | / | Dork |
#13 | / | Hot Press |
#13 | / | The Young Folks |
#17 | / | Stereogum |
#20 | / | Albumism |
#21 | / | Slant Magazine |
#29 | / | Billboard |
#33 | / | Complex |
#36 | / | BrooklynVegan |
#36 | / | The Guardian |