The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships

The 1975 don’t lack in ambition. While their self-titled debut album may have received the odd mauling from a music press unprepared for what the band would go on to become, it built the devoted following that propelled its follow up - 2016’s ‘I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it’ - into the stratosphere. With a 180 degree flip on the wider perceptions of the group, it was a revelation that challenged those previous judgements and won.

When it comes to a third full-length, nobody would blame The 1975 if they took the obvious route. ‘I like it when you sleep...’ had a defining vibe running through its core - much copied but rarely perfected by their peers. While they experimented around the edges, to replicate what worked so well last time around would be met with little complaint, either commercially or critically.

The fact that ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ never once takes the easy way out is exactly why The 1975 are a band impossible to ape. The first of two records under the ‘Music For Cars’ umbrella, it isn’t just a great album - it’s a generation-defining masterpiece. Refusing to succumb to expectations, it’d be obvious to label it part poptimist contender to Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’, part millennial ‘OK Computer’. In truth, though, it’s both, and yet so much more.

Skipping through the dial, each track has its own rulebook, but against all odds, they hang together effortlessly. Never difficult without cause, nor so simplistic it runs out of new avenues to explore, it’s an exposition on the modern condition, every moment revealing something telling about the world around us.