the 1975

https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/42414/1/matty-healy-the-1975-brief-inquiry-online-relationships-interview

this interview has a few more details on how Notes is coming along

so “I love america” is basically an emo rap song

matty said that was the intention yeah

really looking forward to hearing whatever they're doing to make Roy Hargrove fit on the Burial-esque track

matty peep

"i like america" is so fucking good

upright bass on mine? alright cool. this album is all over the place stylistically.

sympathetic to anyone who thinks the singles are the best stuff here after a few listens bc i spent a few days not knowing what to make of the record, but "i like america," "how to draw/petrichor," "i couldn't be more in love," and "i always wanna die sometimes" are pretty easily up there with "sincerity" and "love it if we made it" for me

I Couldnt Be More In Love is stunning. A worthy successor to If I Believe You. Wish he reached out to El Debarge to join in on it tho.

that dazed digital interview is awesome, prob the best i've read this cycle

it's interesting... on the one hand matty is very adamant that the band isn't beholden to anyone or anything. on the other, they released the most single-esque songs as singles before the album, and went thru with a traditional album cycle, which colors how you hear the rest of the record. he said to me that he thinks he owes that kind of roll out to their fans, but i also think they should just surprise drop the next album and let their music be heard that way.

ultimately i think the end of the record is pretty stunning tho

so we were choosing between thx 1138 & sans soleil as the visual accompaniment for our listening party but at the last second ending up going with... wall-e

it was a glorious combination on so many levels

I Couldnt Be More In Love is stunning. A worthy successor to If I Believe You. Wish he reached out to El Debarge to join in on it tho.

― Spottie, Friday, November 30, 2018 9:17 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ah fuck, i'm gonna be dreaming about this for the rest of my life

then once the 1975 album ended we had just enough time left in the movie to listen to Mellow Waves which was also delightful

i feel like with petrichor they nod to the blocky, shimmering electronic geegaws that defined the last album, placing it early on the album so they could move on to their new thing. i really loved that old thing but i love this new thing too. the production is so balanced and crisp and warm with so much more dynamic range than any chart-topping pop albums that get released now right??

i feel like this fits neatly into a trio in my mind with the mr twin sister and robyn albums, all artists i love (whose records were my most anticipated releases of the fall), making these patient, spacious, calmly exploratory albums that feel like such a gift when there's so much music and information competing for my attention

^^^ feel like i'm gonna think this is otm in a few days

re: the intros, the first one pulled me into the mood of the band, the second one made me cry, and the third one scared the shit out of me

i like it now though, it kinda fits the loose jazzy vibe that reappears on later tracks

I'm not as invested or versed in this band as y'all
but I really like this, it's a great pop/rock record

It's odd, because it seems like ppl like this less than the last one but this one clicks with me in a way the others didn't

I also thing the whole releasing half the album in drips and drabs kinda sucks and I like all those songs better in context

sympathetic to anyone who thinks the singles are the best stuff here after a few listens bc i spent a few days not knowing what to make of the record, but "i like america," "how to draw/petrichor," "i couldn't be more in love," and "i always wanna die sometimes" are pretty easily up there with "sincerity" and "love it if we made it" for me

― princess of hell (BradNelson)

otm

i know it's probably too early to do this, but what the hell.

a possible top:

love it if we made it
i like america & america likes me
it’s not living (if it’s not with you)
i always wanna die (sometimes)
sincerity is scary
i couldn’t be more in love
TooTimeTooTimeTooTime
how to draw / petrichor
surround by heads and bodies
mine
give yourself a try
inside your mind
be my mistake
the man who married a robot / love theme

Reading that Dazed interview ... would any reviews have mentioned OK Computer had there not been a robot-voiced spoken word track? Because I otherwise don't hear OK Computer at all, any more than I heard it in the last record, which was also not at all.

lots of gorgeous music on this album

Matt Healy has talked about his goals for The 1975's third album, and he's used Radiohead's OK Computer and The Smiths The Queen Is Dead as an example of what he's aiming for.

As reported by NME, speaking in the latest issue of Q Magazine, the frontman revealed: “If you look at third albums, OK Computer or The Queen Is Dead, that’s what we need to do.”

and i
always wanna diiiiiiiiie
sometiiiimes
aaaaaaaaah

Matt Healy could have said he was aiming for TLC's "Crazysexycool" and Tom Petty's "Long After Dark" and we'd see that popping up in reviews, too.

"Sincerity is Scary" has some drunken J. Dilla production vibes.

Listening to "Surrounded By Heads And Bodies" I can believe in a music journalist making the mental leap to Radiohead while listening to it, or even Healy making the mental leap while writing it

Maybe? I don't really hear it. Vs. "The Man Who Married a Robot," which yeah, that was done on purpose.

there’s some radioheadey moments on here, fewer than on ILIWYS tho

Yeah, yet I don't recall anyone really bringing up Radiohead with the last album, either.

Give Yourself A Try sounds a lot like Radio Dept to me

"Sincerity is Scary" has some drunken J. Dilla production vibes.

reminds me of donnie trumpet's surf

Oh wait, you mean those few measures of sort of menacing stuff in "Surrounded By Heads And Bodies?" Yeah, fleeting, but it's there!

also "i always wanna die" doesn't not sound like bends-era radiohead

i really think 'love it if we made it' is one of the best songs on here, replay value wise especially ... i feel like ppl diverge from it because its so trad compared to some of the more outlier type musical choices but lyrically + musically it's an exceptional emotional experience

doh I meant "give yourself a try"

obv everyone loves 'love it if we made it.' 'give yourself a try' is more trad-1975 but i think it's a really incredible version of that.

not saying the album doesn't live up to it or anything -- i need to spend more time w it -- just reacting to tracklist rankings that suggest 'give yourself a try' is bottom tier

i love all of the bright little guitar embellishments that burn behind the "disorder" riff around the second verse/chorus

i would love an ep or short alb of ‘give yourself a try’ type stuff

more and more i'm like "oh yeah of course 'sincerity is scary' is the best 1975 song"

I don't get this band at all nor do I have anything interesting to say about it yet here I am anyway. I'm vicariously enjoying your enthusiasm, though, especially Brad's.

it's strange how we put more faith in whatever Healy says about intentions than we do with most other artists we discuss

Antichrist

— matty (@Truman_Black) November 30, 2018

i would love an ep or short alb of ‘give yourself a try’ type stuff

― flopson, Friday, November 30, 2018 1:52 PM (fifty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the first album!!

otm

/their best album by far *ducks*

I always feel that way (sometimes)

that dazed digital interview is awesome, prob the best i've read this cycle

― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 30 November 2018 4:18 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah the stuff about phone addiction seemed super sharp to me.

it's strange how we put more faith in whatever Healy says about intentions than we do with most other artists we discuss

― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 November 2018 7:39 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Perhaps this reflects that the band's stylistic parameters and affiliations seem so amorphous and omnivorous (have we updated the list of the artist comparisons from earlier in the thread?) that it's like listeners need Matt as a tour guide in order to understand how it fits together and where it's supposed to be going - "oh, this building over here is where the Chancellor of the Exchequer used to sit, now it's the Museum of Modern Art..."

I'd rather run into the museum's outer wall without looking

tl;dr – This is my favorite album of 2018.

Loved the Joy Division influence in "Give Yourself a Try" since my first listen. Love the abstract guitar during the verses. Nice sequencing following up that propulsive opener with "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime," which may be the catchiest thing they've ever done. Lyrics blur the lines between another woman vs. behind-her-back drug usage. I've been there with heroin so tons of lyrics from this album are resonating with me, not just in terms of talking about drug addiction, but the mental frailty and obsessive nature that comes along with it. It takes about 3 minutes for "How to Draw/Petrichor" to really get started, but once it kicks in ... holy shit, it's really something. First half of the track is a pretty hard pump-fake to the UK garage-sounding second half of the track. Seems like there's more vocal manipulation on this new album than on past efforts. Pretty firmly in the camp that "Love It If We Made It" is the best, most poignant song of the year. (Tell me something I didn't know.) Not in love with "Be My Mistake" but it's a good change of pace and doesn't overstay its welcome at first listen in sequence. Absolutely in love with "Sincerity Is Scary," love the jazz instrumentation. Reminds me of Kendrick's "LOVE." and D'Angelo's stuff more than anything previously released by this band. Sounds incredible and really opens up on good headphones! I'm sure there have been comparisons to Bon Iver for "I Like America and America Likes Me." but I haven't read the thread in full here. Sounds like something Bon Iver would sing over a light trap beat, which is pretty awesome considering how it reads on paper. The repeated lyrical couplet "I'm scared of dying / It's fine" is one of my favorite moments on the album. At risk of sounding like a lazy music journalist, "The Man Who Married a Robot" really does sound like the 2018 answer to "Fitter Happier" in the best possible way. First chord of "Inside Your Mind" feels like time is frozen when I hear it. Might be my favorite song on the whole album. Still wish the shoegaze-y guitar part blossoming in the final chorus would be a little more Sonic Youth, a little less Raveonettes (as much as I love both). The hooks all across "It's Not Living..." are glorious and catchy as all heavens. Gotta admit that "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies" drags a little bit (like the end of the last album) but it segues into "Mine" so it's still hard to complain. The instrumentation in that track is gorgeous (again – headphones!) and sparse in the best way possible. Sounds like something from a vocal jazz album! Really subtle and beautiful. Not sure how I feel about the schmaltzy penultimate track yet, but the closing song is a lighters-held-high anthem, and I couldn't be happier overall. We have 7th row tickets to see the 1975 at Red Rocks in a few months, and they now have enough songs to fill a 20-song setlist with something special from start to finish. Great album and a really compelling listen!

Taken as a whole, I can really relate to the 100-miles-a-minute approach of Matty's lyrics, the ground they cover, how his brain darts from political unrest to personal turmoil to romance to the world at large. It probably seems scatterbrained and incoherent to some people, but that's exactly how I think, too, and how my brain works. I can't really think of an album in the last few years that feels more tailor-made for my own life experiences and thought process. Absolutely love this album! And yes, those of us who picked these guys as their "new favorite band" really couldn't have done any better. Hoping the next album is similarly incredible.