“It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)”: the title of the eleventh track off of The 1975’s newest album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, implies a song about love and potentially loss. Listening to the track insinuates the same assumption: the lead singer, Matty Healy, mourns how he has to “search the street when he’s on vacation” because all he does is “sit and think about ‘you’.” At first glance, the lyrics also add to the assumption of a confusingly upbeat lost-love song, yet several subtle hints tell otherwise. “Collapse my veins,” “distract my brain,” “I can’t stop sweating or control my feet” all imply that this is either a very consuming relationship or that Healy is in fact, subtly, referencing his previous heroin addiction and how it controlled his life, much like a heartbreak can.
Most people balk away from The 1975 once they discover the troubled past the band has struggled through. Healy has a history of hard drug use, and a few of the band’s most popular songs contain very subtle references to the control these drugs have had on him. Moreover, The 1975 has just recently been more open about their political standings (especially with “I Like America & America Likes Me”), with Healy ending the statements with a humble, unsurprisingly self-referential statement about how he is simply just another celebrity.
Even though he claims to be “just another celebrity,” Healy has a large influence and understanding of today’s youth culture. The ninth song off of the newest album, titled “The Man Who Married A Robot/Love Theme” is a discourse on how people have become so attached to the internet that they overshare and become reliant to a point where it develops into a parasitic relationship. Healy understands from the younger generation’s point of view: the internet is everything, and it’s not just going to go away. But he also recognizes that it can metamorphose into a toxic outlet if used incorrectly, something that people are in danger of with the new-found focus on the advancement of technology.
“Love It If We Made It” is by far the most political song on the album, yet Healy has skillfully managed to walk the fine line between informatory and inflammatory. “Modernity has failed us” is a repeating line in the song, reminding everyone that our idea of modernity is a very fractured building on a foundation of assumptions and “equalities”. Healy tosses in a few pop-culture references, from Trump’s infamous quote to a list ranging from fossil fuels to immigration issues, which correctly implies that the main focus of this song is the polarized opinions ricocheting through The United States. It’s an appropriate shift for the band from personal to political without crossing the line of inciting anger in a society that has enough to fume about.
Despite the political fire in “Love It If We Made It”, “Sincerity Is Scary” is arguably the rawest song in the lineup. While “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)” recognizes the struggle with finding a place in yourself and the struggle with the effects of suicide, and “Inside Your Mind” is definitely a go-to sob song, “Sincerity Is Scary” is a very crude, real interpretation of how we as people avoid our emotional problems and as a result struggle in relationships with others. The title says it all: sincerity is scary. In a society where people can hide their emotions by tweeting all of their problems away, people lack the ability to effectively communicate, stunting any sort of relationship people attempt to develop. Healy also correctly identifies society’s inability to empathize with others, instead turning to drugs (per the line about the “dirty spoon”) or just avoiding them entirely, using self-reference as a “post-modern way” of “masking pain.”
Speaking of real interpretations, “Be My Mistake” physically hurts to listen to. Healy is clear about the distinction between lust and love. His lyrics speak to a current lover that he is unable to see as anything more than something sexual, all the while pouring his heart out to the love he can’t get over. Even though this specific incidence might not be relatable, it isn’t difficult to empathize with Healy. The situation of trying your hardest to get over someone but constantly being saddened by every reminder is one almost everyone has been in. Heartbreak isn’t a new thing, but Healy depicts it in a way so personal and so singular that it’s hard not to be able to feel every lyric.
A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is a lot to take in mentally and emotionally from start to finish, but it’s an important listen. The 1975 managed to intermingle the difficult political opinions in our society with all of the personal chaos going on in the brains of young people trying to cope the best way they know how. But whether you hate them, love them, or have never heard of them, The 1975’s lyrics are the best form of emotional communication and understanding.