The 1975 – Notes On A Conditional Form CD
The 1975’s hour and twenty minute, sprawling, rambling, fourth album is a big swing. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a big miss. I’d say it’s more like a foul ball. Not a good one though. If I could keep using baseball terms for a moment, then it’s as if the ball clipped the bottom of the bat and bounced off the plate and back up into the face mask of the catcher. The 1975 didn’t strike out. But they didn’t get a base hit either.
The reason I struggle with this album is that it contains a handful of songs that I really enjoy. “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America”, “Me and You Together Song” and “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” are among my favorites in the band’s discography. And while I enjoy others on this album as well (“Guys”, “Roadkill”) these only make up about a quarter of the extensive, twenty two track total. In between the album’s highlights are a dozen electronic and pseudo orchestral ambient songs. And a handful of these are rounded out with Healy’s societal observations. He rambles over top of these songs with highly processed vocals, mumbling about the state of the internet or whatnot.
On Notes On a Conditional Form, the band demonstrates an extreme versatility, but no clear focus and a lot of filler. When I see that an album is as long as this one is, I worry. If you succeed, then it’s all the more impressive. But if you fail, you fail harder. Matty Healy and company throw a lot of ideas at the wall here. And in a way, that’s admirable. “People” is a driving, loud, brutal track unlike anything the band had put out before. To take a risk of that kind is in a way, more exciting than if the band put out more of the same: something that I’m sure many fans would be more than receptive to.
NOACF feels like three or four separate, half-finished albums that were combined into one messy project. I think on a separate, singular, focused album, I wouldn’t hate something like “Yeah I Know” or “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied”. But interspliced with the rest of the tracks, I’m left feeling lost by the time the album finally reaches its end.
I think of Big Thief’s 2022 double album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, an album of the same length. DNMIBIY never feels disjointed, confusing, or drawn out. The songs blend very naturally. The tone ebbs and flows, but the textures and styles don’t feel at odds with one another. And yet Big Thief never seems to run out of musical ideas from beginning to end. They take their sound and bend it, but they never break it. In the case of the 1975, I’m afraid they bent Notes On a Conditional Form to it’s breaking point.
Label: Dirty Hit – DH00752
Country: USA & Europe
Media Condition: Near Mint (NM or M-)
Sleeve Condition: Near Mint (NM or M-)