Notes on a Conditional Form by 1975

Notes on a Conditional Form, the 1975's fourth album, finally surfaced on Dirty Hit and Polydor on 22 May 2020 after a string of delays. First titled Music for Cars, it was meant to close out a two-album era begun with A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, and Matty Healy, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald and George Daniel cut it all over the place: London, Los Angeles, Sydney, Northamptonshire and a mobile studio on the tour bus. The finished tapes went in just weeks before the pandemic hit.

It's a sprawling, maximalist mixtape of a record, lurching from house and UK garage to acoustic folk, emo and country, with orchestral interludes, ambient drift and guests from Phoebe Bridgers and FKA Twigs to Greta Thunberg and Healy's dad, Tim. The songs brood on isolation, uncertainty and anxiety, peeling back Healy's showman persona. Critics split down the middle; the fans sent it to number one in the UK.

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