Albums to watch

Notes On A Conditional Form

The 1975

Notes On A Conditional Form

Fourth album from Manchester-based indie rock / pop quartet with guest appearances from Phoebe Bridgers, FKA Twigs, Tim Healy, and Greta Thunberg

ADM rating[?]

6.7

Label
Polydor
UK Release date
22/05/2020
US Release date
22/05/2020
  1. 10.0 |   NME

    This sprawling album, which encompasses everything from electronica to anarcho-punk, sees Matty Healy take a wrecking ball to his own ego
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  2. 9.0 |   The Music

    Offers a loving sense of relatability and authenticity in a world that appears to be falling apart at the seams
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  3. 8.3 |   Consequence Of Sound

    A record seething with paranoia, charges of revolution, and honesty in uncertain times
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  4. 8.0 |   Clash

    ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ is lyrically playful and musically a step away from being confused for a compilation album of the best tracks this group has ever released
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  5. 8.0 |   Q

    or all its characteristic lyricism and stylistic restlessness, to say there is never a dull moment on Notes on a Conditional Form would be a slight overstatment. Print edition only

  6. 8.0 |   Gigwise

    The most interesting and confusing major release by an arena-selling guitar band in a long while
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  7. 8.0 |   Pitchfork

    Matty Healy, the enfant terrible of pop-rock, pushes his band all-in with a long, messy experiment that just so happens to peak with some of their sharpest songs ever
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  8. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    It’s all about perspective, and at 80 minutes and 22 songs, you’d expect some measure of clarity to emerge from Notes On A Conditional Form. What you do get is a Taylor Swift album in the midst of five great songs, five decent tracks and 12 give-or-takes. And that, in today’s artistic climate, is tantamount to excellence
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  9. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    The 1975 follow A Brief Inquiry... with an even more intriguing, sprawling, and chameleonic song suite. Notes on a Conditional Form shows a level of unquenchable ambition, creativity, and outspoken curiosity that's rarely felt in popular music today
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  10. 8.0 |   Exclaim

    There are at least two too many instrumentals, and songs that stand apart on their own start to bleed together near then end. But the ambition and execution can't be denied. This is the 1975 operating at the peak of their powers
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  11. 8.0 |   The FT

    This ambitious album lasts over 80 minutes and features many stylistics twists and turns
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  12. 8.0 |   Albumism

    It is an album that will challenge some listeners and reward others. I feel it will be loved and loathed in equal quantities. The one thing that is for sure is it shouldn’t be ignored
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  13. 7.7 |   Beats Per Minute

    Arrogant? Absolutely. Boring? A bit. Great? No doubt about it.
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  14. 7.5 |   Under The Radar

    It is a deceptively intimate work; diary entries hidden within slickly produced pop songs, which shows Britain’s most divisive band still hasn’t lost its ability to surprise
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  15. 7.0 |   DIY

    Among all the killer, there’s also a lot of filler
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  16. 7.0 |   XS Noize

    It appears The 1975 tried to make a thought-provoking album which also tries to make people forgot and be disengaged with the world and its precariousness. Sadly, despite the evident sound engineering and deft musicality throughout; these two antithetical concepts do not sit well together
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  17. 7.0 |   Slant Magazine

    The album solidifies the band as the boldest purveyors of something resembling what we used to call rock
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  18. 6.4 |   Gig Soup

    Listening to the fourth album by The 1975 is like gold prospecting: once you filter through the mud, and there is a fair amount of mud, you will find something more than worth your time
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  19. 6.0 |   The Guardian

    Piling on genres and themes, the unwieldy NOACF smartly interprets contemporary chaos yet seriously lacks quality control
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  20. 6.0 |   The Irish Times

    For all their passion and enthusiasm, there’s no question that this 80-minute album is far too long and somewhat self-indulgent. Still, you have to admire a band that are unafraid to take a risk; luckily for The 1975, it paid off – this time
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  21. 6.0 |   Rolling Stone

    Despite being way too long, the latest from U.K. rock’s “voice of a generation” has moments of high-concept craftsmanship
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  22. 6.0 |   All Music

    Produced by lead singer Matthew Healy and drummer George Daniel, the album feels like a companion piece to A Brief Inquiry, with songs that shift styles wildly from track to track
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  23. 6.0 |   No Ripcord

    For those who have keenly followed The 1975 up to this point, business as usual then, but if The 1975 truly want to chronicle our conditional form, maybe they’d do well to take fewer notes next time
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  24. 6.0 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    The 1975 have created a very bloated version of A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, which means that it has some really impressive moments of electronic experimentation and upbeat indie-rock gems, but also a large swath of songs that could have been left to a future EP or b-side collection
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  25. 5.1 |   Paste Magazine

    Following their critical breakthrough A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, Matt Healy & co. return with exhausting chaos
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  26. 5.0 |   A.V. Club

    Unsurprisingly, the sonic hopscotch that once amplified the group’s singularity now feels like a liability; Notes On A Conditional Form feels less like a 1975 album than it does a hodgepodge collection of songs by a band trying on various sonic identities to see what fits
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  27. 5.0 |   The Arts Desk

    Healy’s lyrics didn’t need to prophesy the sickness haunting us, when isolation’s unease is inbred
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  28. 4.0 |   Evening Standard

    A confusing, exhausting mess
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  29. 3.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    For a band with proven dexterity in deftly capturing the nuances and quick changes of contemporary conversation, it is disheartening to witness them with nearly nothing of note to say
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  30. 2.0 |   The Independent

    A parade of smug self-indulgence
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