EXPERIMENTAL, EXPERIENTIAL AND A LITTLE BIT EXTRA?: THE 1975's 'A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS' REVIEW

Credit: Press.

The crazy scientists of the British music scene have revealed their new creation, and I somehow am lost for words and have so much to say at the same time.

Note: I will be shortening A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS to ABIIOR throughout this post.

As unprofessional as this is going to sound; I went into this album expecting to dislike it. From the singles that were released beforehand, I thought the band might have been being experimental for experimental's sake which is one of my pet hates in music.
However, although parts of the album were certainly like this, other parts of it went in a completely different direction and in some places the excessive experimentation did actually work. It was a pretty mixed bag, but definitely an interesting listening experience.

I'm going to begin with the main issue I had with the album which wasn't really to do with the music itself at all, it was the ordering of it. Obviously, these days where online streaming is the main form of listening, the order isn't as important as it used to be, I still like to listen to albums in order the first couple times I listen to them. However, ABIIOR seems to have a bit of an odd form to it. Almost split in half, the upbeat songs are in the first half and then there's a series of about six songs towards the end that are sad and melancholy. There was almost an anti-climax to the album. Maybe there's a reason these six songs were put together but I couldn't really find one, so from now on I'll be listening to it on shuffle.

With the main issue out the way, I can discuss how genuinely pleasantly surprised I was with the whole album. Being experimental is what The 1975 seem to do best, and in ABIIOR the band have really shown that they know the line between being experimental and just being downright crazy. Ironically, I think they tracks they released earlier were actually the songs I liked the least. Maybe the band always had a plan to release the wilder songs first so people were surprised by the genuineness and lowkey-ness of the rest of the album.

There were a fair few stand out tracks for me, but for various different reasons. The first track that really stood out to me was 'The Man Who Married a Robot / Love Theme'. The first two minutes of this song is a robotic voice (most likely Apple's Siri) telling a love story between a man and the internet over a melancholy piano backing track. It was only a matter of time before we had a song that heavily featured Siri and I'm not surprised that The 1975 were the ones to take the first plunge. The rest of the song which follows the story is orchestral and almost sounds like a movie soundtrack which perfectly matches the story previously told. This song is a perfect example of how experimental music should be. They have experimented in a way that is meaningful. Mixing the modernity of the electronic voice and the tradition of the orchestra is very clever on their behalf and makes The Man Who Married a Robot / Love Theme the definition of a stand-out track.

Something I wasn't expecting on the album was the amount of acoustic guitar that features. The 1975 are known for their pop-indie-rock sound that is usually heavily electronic, but on a fair few tracks on ABIIOR it seems the band has actually scaled down. There are many tracks which simply feature a pensive guitar or a sad piano, with love-riddled lyrics performed with the unmistakable vocals of Matty Healy to match them. Be My Mistake and Surrounded by Heads and Bodies are perfect examples of the way the band stay away from the crazy sounds and perform what seems to be a more genuine sound.

For me, however, my personal favourite track was the final one on the album: 'I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)'. I don't know whether it's just because the first lyrics were 'I bet you thought your life would change but you're sat on a train again' and I was sat on a train at the time of listening and spent the rest of the song very focused in because of how well I seemed to relate to the very first lyric; but this song really resonted with me on a whole new level. My liking of this song was definitely helped by the guitar in the chorus as I'm someone who loves a good guitar. However, I'm by no means the first person to really love this song. This appears to be one of the favourites across social media. 
The decision to end the album on a track like this was a very good one. It mixes the genuineness of real instruments, with the sad lyrics and electronic sounds that are so typical of The 1975.

Was every track on this album perfect (in my opinion)? No. Was it a very interesting album to listen to that brought me round to this new era from The 1975? Absolutely.
The 1975 have brought true creativity to the forefront of their album making, and although sometimes it was a little misplaced, most songs on the album showcase it very well. as someone who was skeptical going in, I can say that The 1975 have gone above and beyond limits to show what they can really do with music with A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

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Written by Ruby Crowhurst