The only thing more widespread than technology in today’s world is the commentary on technology. Both optimistic and horrifyingly negative, it comes from everyone and everything - politicians, Netflix shows, crazy moms on Facebook, and The 1975’s third album,

A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships

.

The 1975 started as a three-piece punk band in 2002 in Manchester, England under a variety of different names, but they found commercial success as an indie rock band. Their first two albums,

The 1975

and

I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it

, established the base of their musical style that continues through

A Brief Inquiry

: a genre-bending mosaic of everything from jazzy flourishes to vocoder-tinged vocals. With such a dynamic and varied musical style, it’s easy for an album to lose the common musical thread that ties it together as a coherent piece. In fact, more negative reviews of

The 1975 and I like it when you sleep

... frequently attacked the band for being overly ambitious. But through its lyrical themes,

A Brief Inquiry

turns musical meandering into a multi-faceted exploration of the modern world. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’s repeating lyrics atop an uplifting beat allude to infidelity in modern relationships, Love It If We Made It asserts that “modernity has failed us” with a flurry of political talking points, Trump quotes, and even a Lil Peep shoutout, and The Man Who Married A Robot tells a story about a man who falls in love with the Internet narrated entirely by Siri - and that’s just the first half of the album! Through its many shifts in musical style,

A Brief Inquiry

tells a story that’s increasingly familiar to all of us and does so with a musical ambition that made it one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2018.

Despite the immense musical scope of

A Brief Inquiry

, the album’s story isn’t over. Frontman Matty Healy confirmed that

A Brief Inquiry

is part of a two-record “era” called

Music For Cars

. The second album in the era,

Notes on a Conditional Form

, is expected to be released in May of this year. And if

A Brief Inquiry

is any indication,

Notes on a Conditional Form

may be one of the most exciting and ambitious albums of the year.