A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
“We’re fucking in a car, shooting heroin, saying controversial things just for the hell of it.”
Welcome to The 1975’s exhibitionist ruckus. Following a downward spiral of hotel rooms, illicit substances and a spat in rehab, Matt Healy’s new record is part sombre church confession, part signature slick and polished pop and part disastrous abuse of voice distortion.
TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME, I Like America & America Likes Me and The Man Who Married The Internet drown in synth and effects pedals, putting you in mind of a Bon Iver fanboy who was given a keyboard for Christmas. You can’t help but feel with these tracks that the titles came to Matt in a flash of inspiration and the music filled in the gaps as an apologetic afterthought.
Love It If We Made It and Sincerity Is Scary are undoubtedly the hits of the record and have the bouncy cadences and lyrical wizardry that put their previous albums head and shoulders above generic boy-band fodder. But, generally you expect an album to be more than just pre-released singles surrounded by 13 dysfunctional tracks. A Brief Enquiry is the musical equivalent of various jigsaw puzzles gaffer-taped into one image.
That said, I Couldn’t Be More In Love and Give Yourself A Try hit the sweet-spot between previous hits like Chocolate and the melty, waltzing musical landscapes of Genesis. I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) is the perfect show-stopper to round things off with, offering a spoonful of the poppy bittersweet and in corners brushes up against Radiohead at their finest.
A Brief Inquiry is too busy hanging itself with its own narcissism and jumping a hopscotch of musical styles to really know what it’s doing, though its risk-taking and more matured sound shows promise of much better music to come.
5/10
