A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is the third studio album by English band the 1975. It was released on 30 November 2018 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records. Initially titled Music for Cars, the album was intended as the follow-up to I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. The term later denoted an era encompassing both their third album and Notes on a Conditional Form, released in 2020. The band halted recording of the first part after lead singer Matthew Healy left for a drug rehabilitation clinic in Barbados, seeking treatment for his heroin addiction. Following the singer's return, the band spent several months completing the album in Northamptonshire and Los Angeles.
A maximalist experimental album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships combines rock and pop music with ambient interludes. Eschewing the 1980s-influenced sound of its predecessor, the album embraces a desolate soundscape informed by electronica. Noted for its incorporation of various genres, the record heavily draws from jazz, R&B, electropop, indie rock and Britpop, among others. The songs are characterised by their electronic beats, gospel choirs, neo-soul horns and downtempo rhythms. Guest contributions are featured from the London Community Gospel Choir, No Rome, the Japanese House and Roy Hargrove.
Exploring the role of digital communication and the internet in contemporary life, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is a concept album connected by several overarching threads. The album serves as a cautionary political statement, questioning the implications of society's relationship with technology and its impact on millennials. It marks a shift in Healy's portrayal of heroin addiction, embracing sincerity and honesty to speak on the desolation it causes. Eschewing metaphors and ambiguity, the album utilises black humour, simple lyrics and straightforward storytelling, covering dark topics such as nihilism, suicide, depression, anxiety, dissociation, trauma, cynicism and death, among others.
The album received widespread acclaim from contemporary music critics, who praised the production quality and portrayal of modern life, with some critics calling it a millennial version of Radiohead's OK Computer. It was preceded by the singles "Give Yourself a Try", "Love It If We Made It", "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime", "Sincerity Is Scary" and "It's Not Living ". In addition to appearing on numerous publications' year-end and decade-end lists, it won the British Album of the Year at the 2019 Brit Awards. The album became the 1975's third consecutive number one on the UK Albums Chart, and was later certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry. It also peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart and attained top-ten positions in several countries, including on Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. To further promote the album, the band embarked on their Music for Cars Tour.
Background
The 1975 released their second studio album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, in February 2016. The record peaked atop the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200 and was considered by numerous critics to be one of the best albums of 2016. In February 2017, lead singer Matthew Healy tweeted: "Music For Cars – 2018". In an April interview on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 Radio show, the singer confirmed the title Music For Cars and announced a 2018 release, saying " has always been called that, and we were always gonna do a trilogy of records". He later told Tom Connick of NME that the title was a reference to the band's third extended play of the same name, saying it "was always my favorite title of everything we'd ever done". With Music For Cars, the singer aimed to create the most important pop album of the decade, hoping to achieve the same impact as Radiohead's OK Computer and the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead.In August 2017, the 1975 stated they were in the editing process of Music For Cars, having over two hours worth of material, while the band's manager Jamie Oborne said the first recording sessions for the album were planned for September. Posters promoting the album began emerging around London and Manchester in April 2018. In May, the 1975 announced that Music For Cars would now serve as an umbrella term to denote an "era" comprising two albums: A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships and Notes on a Conditional Form. The title of the former is taken from Gene McHugh's essay The Context of the Digital: A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. While on a train in London, Healy spotted a passenger reading You Are Here: Art After the Internet by Omar Kholeif, in which the essay is included. Regarding the decision to release two separate bodies of work rather than a double album, Healy called the double album format "prog and annoying... they're self-serving".
Recording and development
In July 2017, the 1975's drummer and co-producer George Daniel discovered Healy was using heroin again, only hours before performing at the Latitude Festival. The band held an intervention afterward, and the singer promised to detox once they traveled to Los Angeles to record A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. The initial recording sessions began in August at the Angelic Residential Recording Studio in Northamptonshire. In September, the singer went on a tirade while under the influence of benzodiazepine, proclaiming he would continue to smoke heroin while telling the band members: "Listen, everyone has to get onboard because I'm the fucking main deal. If you want songs, we're just going to have to get on with it." Realising the seriousness of his actions, Healy declared his intention to enter a drug rehabilitation centre and treat his heroin addiction. The 1975 travelled to Los Angeles the following month, recording at the Sunset Marqui until Halloween, when Healy left to seek treatment at a rehab in Barbados.Healy spent seven weeks in Barbados between November and December, an experience that inspired several songs on A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships; he used songwriting as a means of catharsis that allowed him to gain a sense of purpose and wellbeing. The singer wrote "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies" about Angela, a woman he met in rehab. Although the pair rarely interacted, he felt a connection with her, and a later conversation revealed they lived on the same street in Manchester. The song's title stems from David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, which Healy read during his time in Barbados. "I Couldn't Be More In Love" was also inspired by the experience, with the singer saying it is "not about love at all", but rather explores "being terrified of what happens when people stop caring". Healy and Daniel remained in contact during his time in rehab, which represented the longest time the two had spent apart, and the latter said: "It was a worrying time, because we’re so symbiotic, there can’t be problems like that."
While much of A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships was written prior to Healy's stay in Barbados, the 1975 returned to the Northamptonshire studio in January 2018, where they remained for seven months. The singer told Indran Paramasivam of Bandwagon that the studio was chosen due to its seclusion and resemblance to his childhood farmhouse in Cheshire. Elsewhere in the UK, the band recorded sessions at various studios in London, including Abbey Road Studios with the London Community Gospel Choir. In late July, the 1975 returned to Los Angeles for four months to finalise the record and start working on Notes on a Conditional Form. Although the band worked on both albums simultaneously, Healy did not want to preserve any songs for Notes on a Conditional Form. During this period, the band lived and worked at Perfect Sound, a residential recording studio. Unlike the 1975's prior albums, it is the first not to be co-produced by Mike Crossey. Healy said that Crossey helped the band build confidence as producers with their first two albums; teaching them how to use a studio, how to record and guide the development their craft. Owing to the variety of recording locations utilised for A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, Healy felt that it was not "really conducive to have another element in there".
Musical style
A musically experimental album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships combines rock and pop music. Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone said its juxtaposition of various genres mirrors a music streaming playlist where "sophistipop fades into jazz fades into big-ticket MOR fades into Quiet Storm". The Daily Telegraphs Neil McCormick observed a "kaleidoscopic" variety of styles that reflects the album's engagement with contemporary culture and noted the presence of aesthetically unifying lyrical, vocal and instrumental factors. Writing that the record combines a "strange" mix of tones, genres and production into a singular aesthetic, Mike Watkins of Clash opined that it continues the experimental progression of I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. Writing for The Skinny, Harry Harris noted "a lot more lush, Postal Service-y electronica, and dreamy, cinematic collage-like phrases and choices", deeming the music a departure from the 1980s-style of the record's predecessor. Claire Biddles from The Line of Best Fit also felt the album is a musical departure from the band's second record, asserting that it eschews the "sunset pinks" and "pool blues" of their second album in favour of "a desolate sonic world".Chris Conaton of PopMatters, The Ringer's editorial staff and NME writer Dan Stubbs deemed the record "genre-hopping". Aimee Cliff of Dazed deemed it "an effervescent and experimental record", while Tampa Bay Times writer Jay Cridlin called the album a "lavish and experimental blockbuster". Writing for Paste, Marissa Matazzo said the album blends indie rock and electronic elements, while Conrad Duncan of Under the Radar classified the record as indie rock which incorporates jazz-rap, pop-reggaeton, "Gershwin balladry", IDM and Britpop. Thrillist writer Dan Jackson felt the album is rooted in electropop and R&B, with Ian Gormely of Exclaim! also calling it an electropop album. Sputnikmusic staff writer SowingSeason classified the album's musical style as a fusion of jazz, electronica, rock and pop, with Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan calling the use of the former genre "the most surprising twist on album".
Interspersed with ambient interludes, the maximalist songs on A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships are characterised by spaced-out electronic beats and flourishes, gospel choirs, saxophones, neo-soul horns, light piano, 1980s synths, "jaunty" melodies and downtempo rhythms. Healy's vocals are autotuned and distorted for much of the record, and he delivers the lyrics in a stream-of-consciousness style. The album features contributions from several guest collaborators. The London Community Gospel Choir provides choir vocals on "Love It If We Made It", "Sincerity Is Scary", "It's Not Living " and "I Couldn't Be More in Love". Roy Hargrove performs the trumpet on "Sincerity Is Scary" and "Mine". Guendoline Rome Viray Gomez—known professionally as No Rome—co-wrote "TooTimeTooTimeTooTime" and performs the song's background vocals, drums, synthesiser and programming. Elsewhere, he provides the keyboards and programming for "Sincerity Is Scary" and the background vocals on "I Like America & America Likes Me". Amber Bain–known professionally as the Japanese House–contributes to "It's Not Living ", singing the background vocals in addition to performing the keyboard and electric guitar.