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2020 studio album by The 1975 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Notes on a Conditional Form is the fourth studio album by English band the 1975. It was released on 22 May 2020 by Dirty Hit and Polydor Records. The band announced the follow-up to I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016) would be titled Music For Cars, which later came to denote an era spanning two albums. The first, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, released in November 2018. Recording of the second took place in 15 studios in spanning four countries. Much of the record was created in London, Los Angeles, Sydney and Northamptonshire, where the band lived at the Angelic Residential Recording Studio. Additionally, their tour bus was retrofitted to accommodate a mobile recording studio. Due to vinyl manufacturing issues and lead singer Matthew Healy's tendency to announce arbitrary release dates, it faced several delays. Ultimately, the 1975 submitted the album two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forced most of the world into lockdowns.
Notes on a Conditional Form | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 22 May 2020 (2020-05-22) | |||
Recorded | August 2018 – February 2020 | |||
Studio | Various
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Genre | Experimental | |||
Length | 80:29 | |||
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Producer |
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The 1975 chronology | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
Singles from Notes on a Conditional Form | ||||
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Notes on a Conditional Form is a maximalist experimental album that subverts the finality of its predecessor, contrasting its tighter, more calculated format. The album's free-flowing structure is composed of conventional songs, classical orchestral interludes and ambient electronic instrumentals. The songs feature loose, winding stream of consciousness structures and espouse neo-noir ambience, incorporating sounds, styles and textures extrapolated from a diverse set of scenes and eras. Unlike the 1975's prior records, the album features several guest vocalists. Phoebe Bridgers represents the most prominent contributor to the album, providing vocals on four songs. Elsewhere, FKA Twigs provides background vocals on two songs and Tim Healy contributes to a duet with his son. Additionally, Cutty Ranks and Swedish teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg each provide solo vocal performances on their respective songs.
Musically, Notes on a Conditional Form has been described as genreless, generally following two main stylistic threads. The first, meant to represent British night-time music, extensively incorporates house, UK garage and a variety of electronic music subgenres. The second is guitar-based, rooted in acoustic-driven folk, emo, country, and numerous rock music subgenres. Thematically, the album eschews the explicitly political messages of its predecessor and is considered the most personal album in the 1975's repertoire. It focuses on the intricacies of human existence, love, loss, the highs and lows of the human experience, self-discovery and the meaning of life. The album narrates navigating anxiety, mental health issues and the challenges of modern life, such as technology, depression, intimacy, life and death. Lyrically, it deals with drug addiction, touring, atheism, love, politics and the fallibility of the band's own writing.
"People", "Frail State of Mind", "Me & You Together Song", "The Birthday Party", "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" and "Guys" were released as singles in support of Notes on a Conditional Form. To promote the album, the 1975 planned to embark on the North American leg of their Music for Cars Tour, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic prior to its release. Instead, the band curated an online art exhibition entitled Artists Respond to NOACF, commissioning 14 artists to create videos for 14 of the album's songs. They also partnered with Amazon Music to launch Mindshower, a digital creative space for users to access exclusive literature, music and artwork. The album debuted at number one in the band's native United Kingdom, making them the sixth act to have their first four records top the UK Albums Chart. Elsewhere, it peaked atop the charts in Australia and Scotland, reached the top five in Ireland, New Zealand and the United States, and top 20 in Canada and Japan. The album received polarizing reviews from contemporary music critics; some lauded it as the band's magnum opus, others derided it as confusing, chaotic and directionless. Despite this, the album appeared on numerous year-end lists and was hailed as the best release of 2020 by The Music.