Notes On A Conditional Form

Matty Healy and the gang bring forth one of their most sprawling, expansive albums yet. its an album that tries to be so many things, and ends up being nothing. its an album thats confused by itself. the tracklist is a mess, consisting of hardcore rock, jittery ambient pop, country folk-pop, intimate indie balladry, emo electronic, dreamy nostalgic pop, 80s synth pop, EDM, house music, and UK garage. all of these genres are haphazardly thrown together, and come out as either half-formed messes or unoriginal, bland mush. the lyrics often hint at saying something meaningful while saying absolutely nothing at all. "People" is a punk rock song that paints itself as if its a rebellious political anthem, despite it saying literally nothing. "The Birthday Party" includes a lengthy conversation Matty Healy has with a girl called Mel where they talk about piss and hotel rooms and it goes nowhere and means nothing. The 1975 brings forth a plethora of genres, many of which do not fit them at all. "Yeah I Know" is a boring sparce electronic track with a single synthline and a drum machine, "Nothing Revealed/Everything Denied" is a mess of a song that includes gospel choir chants, an autotuned pitch-down rap verse, and an awful electronic guitar solo. So many songs on this album have awful production choices. "Don't Worry" is a pleasant piano-based ballad thats unfortunately ruined by shitty autotune that does not fit the song at all. "Bagsy Not In Net" is a electronic sample-based track with vocals that are drenched in reverb and drowned in the mix, making the song feel more like an interlude than an actual song. Speaking of interludes, the two orchestral tracks on the first half of this album, "The End (Music For Cars)" and "Streaming" add nothing to this album. So many songs on this album feel half-formed, making this album feel like a bloated mess. And that's exactly how I'd describe this album. A bloated, inconsistent, confused mess.

Anyways, this is one of my favorite albums of all time, and its my favorite 1975 record. The best tracks on this album are some of the best tracks The 1975 has ever made, such as "Frail State of Mind" "Me and You Together Song" "I Think There's Something You Should Know" "Tonight I Wish I Was Your Boy" and "If Your Too Shy (Let Me Know)". This album is a confused mess, which is exactly how I felt throughout the entirety of quarantine. In a weird way, I feel like I connect to this album on a personal level. This album is like a friend that's going through the same things as you are. They dont really help you through your problems, but they make you face them. And sometimes that can help people come to terms with problems and work through them. Despite this album being a fucking mess, I love it because this album perfectly reflects who I am. A confused mess of a person. This album sucks. I can't stop listening to it. I love this album.