The 1975 releases critically acclaimed album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

An album tackling heroin addiction, politics, the internet and death has made A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships a contender for album of the year.

The album opens with the standard The 1975 intro track. This track features the same lyrics as the intro tracks from the past two albums but with a different arrangement. This is a great way to see the band's growth from album to album.

What The 1975 does brilliantly on this album is to blend multiple genres seamlessly together. There are elements of pop, jazz, rock, indie, electronic yet, with all these genres nothing seems out of place. There are some weaker cuts on the album such as TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME. Not a bad song by any means but this track seems like a filler song on an otherwise content heavy album. Another slightly strange addition to the album is How To Draw/ Petrichor. What begins as a soft and somewhat pretty instrumental quickly escalates to weird autotuned vocals and an instrumentation that sounds like something straight out of a video game.

One of the highlights of A Brief Inquiry is the track It's Not Living (If It's Not With You). A catchy, fun pop song with the best guitar riff on the album is actually a song about Matty's heroin addiction. The lyrics "Collapse my veins wearing beautiful shoes" explains the juxtaposition in this song perfectly. Its The 1975 doing what they do best, making upbeat songs about very serious topics

Collapse my veins wearing beautiful shoes

Its Not Living (If Its Not With You)

Love It If We Made It has also made its way on multiple lists for best song of 2018 and with good reason. This track highlights the injustices occurring in the world. Matty has said that Love It If We Made It was born out of news headlines. It features references to Kanye West and USA president, Donald Trump. Once again the instrumental is upbeat and somewhat uplifting despite the subject matter however, it only adds to the message of the song. This gives it more of a hopeful tone rather than one of despair.

A Brief Inquiry is a concept album, focusing on modern society and the internet's role in it. The theme is evident throughout the album as the songs tackle themes that most people (especially young people) in today's society can relate to. Give Yourself A Try in particular deals with growing up and wanting to change the path your life is on. The Man Who Married A Robot/Love Theme especially contributes to the theme of the album. While not a song anyone would have on repeat, as it features Siri telling a story, it does look at the role the internet plays in people's lives by personifying the internet. Within the context of the album it works in delivering the message but it is rather annoying to listen to. However, if you are willing to wait till the last minute it ends with a beautiful instrumental piece.

Modernity has failed us!

Love It If We Made It

The 1975's previous two albums seemed to lack one thing which was a continuous undercurrent theme. This is where A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships really shines. An album that spans over multiple genres, with influences from multiple decades and relatable lyrical content, its safe to say that The 1975 have outdone themselves.