The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships [2× 180g Vinyl LP]

The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships [2× 180g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: 2× Vinyl LP, Album, Gatefold, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: DH00325 / 6796448
• Barcode: 602567964483
• Genre: Indie Pop / Synth Pop / Alternative Rock / Art Pop
• Label: Dirty Hit / Polydor
• Originally Released: 30 November 2018
• Pressing: 180 Gram Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is the third studio album by The 1975 — Matthew "Matty" Healy (vocals, guitar, piano), Adam Hann (guitar), Ross MacDonald (bass) and George Daniel (drums, programming, synthesizer) — released on 30 November 2018 on Dirty Hit and Polydor, and the album on which the band made the most decisive and confident statement of their artistic ambitions. It is their first album produced entirely by Healy and Daniel themselves, without outside producers — a milestone that reflected both the band's growing confidence in their own technical abilities and the radical expansion of their sonic palette across an album that ranges from acoustic balladry to hyperpop to jazz-influenced ambient music. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number one — the band's second consecutive chart-topper following I Like It When You Sleep (2016) — and debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200, their highest American chart position to date. It was named Album of the Year by NME, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Guardian and numerous other publications, and won Best British Album at the 2019 Brit Awards alongside Best Group, cementing a critical and commercial consensus that positioned The 1975 as one of the most significant British bands of their generation.

The album takes as its central subject the condition of contemporary online life — the way digital communication, social media, political polarisation and internet culture have reshaped human relationships, interiority and meaning. Its title is deliberately academic in register, positioning the record as an inquiry rather than a statement. Healy has described it as the first of two companion albums — the second being Notes on a Conditional Form (2020) — conceived as a diptych examining the present moment in cultural and political history, the two records sharing musicians and themes but differing radically in tone. The album opens and closes with the title track instrumental (a recurring motif used to open all four 1975 albums), giving the record a formal coherence that reinforces its thematic unity. The dead wax inscriptions across all four sides state the connecting phrase: "If I don't get to see the beauty of the end of culture" (Sides A and C) and "then at least I've seen the culture of the end of beauty" (Sides B and D).

The album's fifteen tracks are exceptionally varied. "Give Yourself A Try" — the lead single, debuted on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in May 2018 — is built on a Chuck Berry-referencing guitar riff and a melody Healy has described as approaching the structure of The Clash; it reached number eight in the UK. "Love It If We Made It" — a collage of contemporary news headlines, tweets and cultural references set to a hypnotic electropop production — is widely regarded as the album's centrepiece: one of the most directly political songs in the band's catalogue, it reached number 26 UK and topped several year-end critics' polls as song of the year. "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME" draws explicitly on late-1980s R&B, in particular Bobby Brown and New Jack Swing, and provided the band's first US Hot 100 entry. "Be My Mistake" is a single-take acoustic guitar ballad, entirely unadorned; "Sincerity Is Scary" draws on jazz piano and Motown; "The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme" is a narrated piece, the narrator voiced by Siri (Apple's virtual assistant), in which a man falls in love with the internet and dies alone — one of the most formally experimental tracks the band has released. The closing "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)" is the album's most expansive piece: a seven-minute orchestral rock ballad that ends the record on a note of earned emotional release.

This UK/EU pressing on Dirty Hit / Polydor is on 2× 180 gram black vinyl housed in a double gatefold sleeve with matt varnish finished inner bags, a 12" lyric booklet and an MP3 digital download card. Mastered by Robin Schmidt at 24-96 Mastering, consistent with the previous 1975 album pressing. Manufactured in Germany under exclusive licence to Polydor Ltd.

Tracklist

Side A

1. The 1975
2. Give Yourself A Try
3. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME
4. How To Draw / Petrichor

Side B

1. Love It If We Made It
2. Be My Mistake
3. Sincerity Is Scary
4. I Like America & America Likes Me

Side C

1. The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme
2. Inside Your Mind
3. It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)
4. Surrounded By Heads And Bodies

Side D

1. Mine
2. I Couldn't Be More In Love
3. I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)

Credits

• Matthew "Matty" Healy – Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Producer
• Adam Hann – Guitar
• Ross MacDonald – Bass
• George Daniel – Drums, Programming, Synthesizer, Producer
• Robin Schmidt – Mastering (24-96 Mastering)
• Label – Dirty Hit / Polydor