"Notes On A Conditional Form" by The 1975
The 1975’s newest album, Notes on a Conditional Form (released May 22, 2020) is an amalgam of musical genres, existential questions, and stories from front man Matty Healy’s life. As on their other three albums, NOACF’s opening track is titled “The 1975.” This rendition features an eloquent speech from climate activist Greta Thunberg over an instrumental track that builds in intensity and yet retains a sense of hopefulness thanks to a repetitive, twinkling piano melody.
Having established a reputation for engaging with current events in their 2018 release A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, The 1975 takes their political call to action a step further with NOACF. “People,” a screamo-punk song, jumps on the heels of Thunberg’s speech with Healy shouting, “Wake up, wake up, wake up / It's Monday morning and we've only got a thousand of them left.” While many may find “People” abrasive to the point of unpleasant, I respect its place on the album as an artistic and political choice as Healy tackles the apathy and fear that threaten the future of our world. As the first single (released August 2019), “People” foreshadowed the exploration of genre and the confrontation with modern-day issues that was to follow with the rest of the album.
At twenty-two tracks, NOACF is a prodigious collection of musical experimentation. “The Birthday Party” is a lyrically-dense combination of social commentary and hipster humor that is reminiscent of “A Change of Heart” and “Paris” from I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (2016). “Roadkill” verges on country-rock but fits into the larger trajectory of the album through Healy’s characteristic use of specific and intentionally vulgar personal anecdotes. In line with the collaborative pattern established on the album, “Shiny Collarbone” and “What Should I Say” feature Jamaican dancehall musician Cutty Ranks and genre-bending singer-songwriter FKA twigs, respectively, and infuse the album with the energy of a night out.
With streaming sites giving us access to over 50 million songs, I see NOACF’s stylistic diversity as representative of the expanding and ever-changing state of music today. As of the end of May, The 1975’s two most popular songs on Spotify were “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know),” which Healy imagines fans see as NOACF’s most quintessentially-1975 song, and “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy),” a ’90s-pop-esque track. While Healy considers the latter to be “the anomaly on the record,” I found myself noting that the two songs have much in common; both center around a catchy chorus and involve Healy pining after someone from whom he is physically distant. The instant success of “Tonight”—following the release of “If You’re Too Shy” as a single in April 2020—may suggest that this upbeat indie-pop sound is what fans most want to hear from the band.
While some reviewers have called the album self-indulgent, my impression of Healy’s songwriting is that it is more self-aware than self-gratifying. He is reflective and self-contradictory while also highly-conscious of the way that he is perceived by others. In “Frail State Of Mind” and “I Think There’s Something You Should Know,” the repetition of the titular phrase captures the difficulty of trying to talk about mental illness. “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied” opens with Healy and the London Community Gospel Choir singing, “Life feels like a lie, I need something to be true / Is there anybody out there?” and echoes Healy’s plea to a God he doesn’t believe in on I like it when you sleep’s “If I Believe You.” The track then incorporates a hip-hop beat and jazzy piano as Healy admits, “I never fucked in a car, I was lying,” rejecting the persona presented on songs from their self-titled album (such as “Sex”) and refuting the brash opening line of “Love It If We Made It.”
The 1975 initially intended to release NOACF in May 2019, but their determination to perfect the songs (and the logistical complication of getting permission to use the Christopher Cross sample heard at the start of “Bagsy Not In Net”) pushed the release back a full year. In many ways, though, this is an appropriate album to listen to in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Healy continues his prior investigation of online relationships while also considering how we exist as “conditional forms,” asking us to question how we are perceived by others in the context of a world that is falling apart. Healy concludes the album by singing about his love for his bandmates on “Guys.” The earnestness of the opening line, “I was missing the guys,” may ring true now more than ever as we remain socially distant from our friends and yearn for the days of going to concerts again. But in the meantime, we can use The 1975’s journey of stylistic experimentation and social and political commentary on NOACF as an occasion for self-reflection and unabashed sincerity.
– Julia Adamo