Album Review: Notes On A Conditional Forum | The 1975
- lifeisbella
- Aug 10, 2020
- 3 min read
This is album #37/20 that I listened to for my 20 for 2020 challenge. I listened to this album 8 times for my review.
Here are some quick stats about Notes On A Conditional Forum by the 1975:
I’m decently familiar with The 1975’s first two albums. I think those two albums have a similar problem that I have with this album (but I’ll get into this later in this review). The reason why I keep coming back to The 1975 is because they have come out with some of the best singles that I have ever heard.
I really did not like this album. At all. It’s just way too long and only has a few songs that I like. It really was a struggle for me to listen to this every time. And it’s so disappointing because I had really high hopes for this album.
I don’t think there were any songs that I really disliked, but most of the songs were extremely boring and forgettable for me. My favorite song on the album is “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know).” This song is so good. It’s probably one of my favorite songs ever. I love this song so much, and this is why I thought the album would be so good. Other songs I liked were “Then Because She Goes,” “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America” and “Guys.” I liked these songs, but these songs don’t even come close to how good “If You’re Too Shy…” is. These 4 songs were the only songs that made listening to the album worthwhile for me. I don’t know why artists flood their albums with fluff and fillers. I would rather listen to an album of really good songs, even if it takes 4 years between albums to compile such a great tracklist. I don’t want to listen to a 12 track album that only has 4 good songs on it. I want the album to be full of only good songs. And it’s an especially egregious problem when it’s a 22 track album with only 4 good songs. And this is a problem I’ve had with their previous albums too. They have released some of my favorite songs! Songs like “Girls,” “Chocolate,” “Love Me,” “UGH!” and “The Sound” are so killer! But the albums as a whole haven’t matched that same energy. I haven’t liked their previous albums as much because there’s a lot of filler songs on there. It’s really weird to me that I can connect so much with some of their singles, but really not like the albums as a whole. On another note, I also just want to shout out that the first track on this album, “The 1975,” featured a spoken word piece by Greta Thunberg. I really appreciate The 1975 using their platform to promote environmental activism and awareness. And I really love how that song ends, and goes into “People,” it’s so punk rock. It’s really cool!
I usually appreciate when albums have a lot of variety between songs, but in this case I think there is way too much variety. Half of the songs are instrumentals that don’t fit. There’s pop songs, punk rock songs, acoustic songs. There’s so many different genres stuffed in there that it feels disjointed and inconsistent. I do appreciate that they write and perform their own songs, so I do have to shout that out.
Recommendations:
Listen or don’t listen? Don’t listen. I wouldn’t recommend for people to listen to this. This album is so long and there’s very few songs that are worth the listen. I’d say, just go listen to the few songs I pointed out above.
I didn’t like this album, and I wouldn’t recommend other people to spend time on it. I will continue to listen to my favorite tracks on this album, but I won’t ever return to listen to this album in its entirety. I may give their future albums a try, but I don’t have high hopes that I will love them, after they’ve established such a disappointing history with me (at least in regards to their full albums). I’d give this album a 3/10. Have you listened to this album? Please let me know your thoughts down below.
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