A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships

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 (If It's Not with You)". 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 (BPI). 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[edit]

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.^[1] 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.^[2][3][4] 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,^[5] saying "[the album] has always been called that, and we were always gonna do a trilogy of records".^[6] He later told Tom Connick of NME that the title was a reference to the band's third extended play of the same name (2013), saying it "was always my favorite title of everything we'd ever done".^[7] 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 (1997) and the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead (1986).^[8]


In August 2017, the 1975 stated they were in the editing process of Music For Cars, having over two hours worth of material,^[9] while the band's manager Jamie Oborne said the first recording sessions for the album were planned for September.^[10] Posters promoting the album began emerging around London and Manchester in April 2018.^[11] 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 (2020).^[12] 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.^[13] 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".^[14]