A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships by 1975

A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, the 1975's third album, landed on Dirty Hit and Polydor on 30 November 2018, and it very nearly didn't: sessions stopped when Matty Healy went to a clinic in Barbados for treatment for heroin addiction, and the band finished the job after his return, in Northamptonshire and Los Angeles. Once titled Music for Cars, it ditches the '80s gloss of its predecessor for a bleaker, electronica-tinged maximalism that grabs from jazz, R&B, electropop, indie rock and Britpop, stitched together with ambient interludes, neo-soul horns, the London Community Gospel Choir and a guest turn from Roy Hargrove.

It's a concept record about living life through screens, and Healy drops the metaphors to write plainly, with black humor, about addiction, depression, anxiety and death. "Give Yourself a Try" and "Love It If We Made It" led the charge, critics reached for OK Computer comparisons, and it won British Album of the Year at the 2019 Brits.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.