A brief enquiry into The 1975

If you've read my bloggings over the past few years you'll know that one band I've always written off (indirectly or in some cases rather more directly) is The 1975. It seems that outside of a growing minority of angry internet commenters. As the recent NME piece 'How i learned to love the 1975 points out at first it was rather easy to hate them. It seems that each generation gets at least one cocky band of young male Mancunians who take the UK (and sometimes the world) by storm. The 70's gave us Joy Division, 10cc and Buzzcocks. The 80's gave us The Smiths and The Stone Roses, the 90's gave us Oasis and we ended up with The 1975. With Matt Healy's floppy hair, and mix of dickishness/ way too much self awareness it seemed that we got the worst one of the bunch. Yet over time with The 1975 growing in popularity and critical acclaim I started to wonder what others were hearing that I wasn't. After all Pale Waves grew on me to the point that their debut became one of my favourites of the year. And they're more or less the same band.

After seeing the several 5 star reviews of 'A brief enquiry..' and the intriguing title I decided to give it a listen and found it to be one of the most frustratingly inconsistent listens I've heard in a long time. The album has been compared to many to Radiohead's Ok Computer. Yet from the opening track that is ironically titled 'The 1975' the only real comparison I can think of is to Bon Iver. More specifically Bon Iver's 2016 album '22, A Million'. Matt Healy's voice is so drowned in vocoder effects that it might as well me Justin Vernon singing. The annoying vocal effects throughout this record seem oddly self defeating. Matty is known for being an witty lyricist, yet it's hard to see why when every track sounds as if he's shouting the words from the bottom of the well. However the albums real opener 'Give yourself a try' is actually a pretty good song. A pretty catchy pop song that mixed garage style beats with a rather overbearing guitar riff. my faults with this songs are with the production rather than the tune itself. 'TOOTIME...' is another example of what the band do best, up-beat 80's style pop rock. Yet it's a song that manages to be both mildly annoying and forgettable at the same time. 'How to draw/Petrichor' is their most blatant steal of Bon Iver's sound yet. At least until the UK Garage style breakbeats kick in.  

The song where all this actually works is the single 'Sincerity is scary'. On this joyous lead single the jazzy piano and trumpets actually work with the gospel choirs and off beat rhythms to create a very enjoyable song.

The only song where the 'OK Computer' comparison seems valid is 'The Man Who Married a Robot'. This is the 'Fitter Happier' of the album. A robotic voice tells a glib story of a man who falls in love with the internet and subsequently dies alone. The difference between this and Radiohead is that the atmosphere isn't one of existential dread, in fact its almost hilarious. A few acoustic ballads further illustrate the fact that The 1975 are a band seemingly in a bit of an identity crises as any emotional depth is robbed by the erratic nature of the songs that surround them. There is even a bizarre detour into lounge jazz on 'I couldn't be more in love'. The grande finale 'I always wanna die (sometimes)' is an epic closer where Matty's vocals soar over an orchestral accompaniment. It's an example that, frustratingly enough, this album is absolutely brilliant in places. The songs are mostly solid but it's the production that usually lets them down. The 1975 were clearly so focused on making a 'generation defining masterpiece' that they smothered their songs in effects and unnecessary instrumentation to the point where they become hard to listen to. What any of this album has to do with 'online relationships' is beyond me. Yet despite some of the tracks being downright annoying there is something about this album that makes it worthwhile and makes me want to hear it again. This overblown third album bears more resemblance to another release of 1997, 'Be Here Now'. it remains to be seen whether or not this album will be panned in a few years time. But 'Be Here Now' still has it's fans. The fact is that despite it's faults this album has almost won me over. It hasn't taught me to love The 1975 but i do now hate them a lot less.