Photo credit: Mara Palena

Their fourth album, and arguably best yet from UK-based band The 1975, Notes On A Conditional Form (also abbreviated as NOACF) serves as a perfect follow-up to 2018’s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. Filling in the gaps that the prior LP missed, the new album contains both a lengthier tracklist and thus, more commentary on both the current culture and a look at situations from the band themselves. 

With a few songs released scattered throughout last year, many listeners were wondering what exactly NOACF would sound like, and with many delayed release dates floating around when it would drop. The singles ranged sonically — from the chaotic, screamo energy of “People” that serves as a shock to your senses, to the calmer “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America” where Phoebe Bridgers makes a surprise appearance. On paper, and as separately released songs, it was hard to see how these would blend. However, The 1975, with the arrangement of the full album’s tracklist placement, managed to prove even myself, and others, wrong. 

“It became such a personal record that there were no rules anymore,” said frontman Matty Healy. “Anybody who had breached the intimacy of the studio was inherently part of the record already. With Phoebe, I just felt like I hadn’t loved a female vocal like hers in like a decade – I was obsessed with her record.”

NOACF was described prior to its premiere last Friday as a return to form for the band, reminiscent of their earlier discography, notably the Music For Cars EP from 2013. In some respects, it does feel very nostalgic and true to The 1975’s first few songs as a band. However, it also feels very on par for the group’s evolution over the past seven years of professional releases. 

The 1975, despite what their Spotify uploads describe, were a band formed and practicing long before their notoriety on Tumblr skyrocketed them into the musical zeitgeist. Consisting of lead singer Matty Healy, drummer George Daniel, bassist Ross MacDonald, and guitarist Adam Hann, the four-piece built their early 2002 roots as a band in Wilmslow, influenced by rock, electronic, and the turn of the Britpop scene that surrounded them. The newest album even contains a tribute song to their friendship and time as bandmates. In the heartwarming “Guys” — the closing song of NOACF —  it ties up their two decades of hard work in a pretty, nostalgic bow, especially given the lines: “The moment we started a band / Was the best thing that ever happened / And I wish that we could do it again.” 

“Every time I do a 1975 record, I kind of just go through my catalogue of music, the mental rolodex,” said Healy. “And I think that Notes is an interesting record, because it has our most aggressive moments and our most tranquil moments, and they’re quite harshly lined up against each other. I don’t have a playlist of one type of music, so I don’t consume music like that, and when I’m inspired it’ll never happen twice in one genre.”  

Arguably though, the peak of the tracks within NOACF is sprinkled throughout the middle of the tracklist. Stacked between various ambient interludes including “The End (Music For Cars),” ironically placed at the record’s start, and the twinkling instrumental of “Streaming,” the lyrical hidden gems of the LP could go unnoticed without listening in succession. 

There’s “Roadkill”, with an upbeat flow that doubles as Healy’s lyrical explanation for situations he’s experienced, from the stress of constant touring (“I’ll take a minute when I think I won’t die from stopping”) to past criticism for not speaking on the UK election. In pure The 1975 fashion, “Roadkill” also alludes to a line from their 2013 hit “Robbers” — adding a comedic layer to a conscience-bearing track.  

Another notable favorite from their new album is “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied”. The song shifts constantly, but in a beautiful way that blends quite well together: a piano instrumental on the intro, a gospelesque chorus joins in, and then another change into a seemingly lo-fi hip-hop track. Like “Roadkill”, this song also drops references to past lines from prior 1975 tracks “Love It If We Made It” and “Heart Out”, serving as an easter egg hunt of sorts for longtime or familiar fans. 

Healy also spoke a bit on the hip-hop influence on “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied” in the Genius commentary for the album, saying, “It came from George jamming on the piano, and I was putting a really low-resolution breakbeat over the top of it. Stuff like that is really fun for us sometimes. If it’s really simple and you’ve got a loop to work with, you can kind of just go into producer mode. And—like any producer normally is—we’re huge J Dilla fans and all that kind of stuff. Lyrically, it’s just more self-reflection. I think it’s about also doing your bit as an artist—if you give people nothing to work with, if you say nothing, then you leave room for people to project anything. I find that a lot of people who are out there doing their thing musically, who aren’t challenging any ideas, are only made interesting through association or projection. I don’t feel like a lot of people stand by stuff.” 

Along with the traditional album release, The 1975 have also teamed up with 15 artists across different mediums (3D, AI experimentation, etc.), commissioning them to create their own creative interpretation of their respective song — one for each artist. 

Basically put, unless the band continues their trajectory and makes something better than Notes On A Conditional Form, this is debatably The 1975’s magnum opus between the music and the visual collaborations. The album is an incredible place to start for those who either haven’t heard of or listened to the group before.