On November 30, The 1975 released their much awaited third album, “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.”  As a long-time 1975 fan, after two years of waiting I was well prepared for a full album of new bangers. Overall, this album was much slower than I originally expected. Despite the lack of my much-desired “bangers,” it offered a more mature new mood, differing a bit from usual The 1975 style.

Most of the album is more closely reminiscent of their second one, “I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it,” with slower, more thoughtful melodies and lyrical content, and a signature pretentious album title. In “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships,” aside from the first four singles “Give Yourself A Try,” “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME,” “It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You,” and “Sincerity Is Scary,” almost every song leans towards the slow, melancholy mood that makes only a slight appearance in previous The 1975 albums.

“Inside Your Mind” was by far my favorite non-single, and one of the most singable songs on the album. It contains a nice, substantial dose of stalker-like obsession while in love, which seemed to be a common theme in this album as a whole. The motif of semi-questionable lyrics really pronounced itself in the pinnacle of moral decency songs, “Be My Mistake,” in which the singer basically insults a girl while also asking her to help him cheat on his girlfriend. The mood gets slightly more upbeat, as well as more cynical, in “I Like America and America Likes Me,” my second favorite, “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes),” and “I Couldn’t Be More In Love,” all of which lend themselves well to car scream-singing, a component that, in my opinion, is very important to the likeability of any musical work. “Mine” and “How to Draw/Petrichor” were both very pleasant and calming, and added some relieving peaceful elements.

When it comes to the songs I would say I do not really need in my life, “The Man Who Married a Robot/Love Theme” is where it seems artistry began to overthrow the desire to make traditional music. It features a lovely, robotic voice that speaks over admittedly pleasant, but also forgettable, background music. The story is quite strange, but if you are looking for a unique narrative interlude while sparking possibly deep thought or confusion, this is a solid option. I also found the introduction, “The 1975” to be unnecessary, as well as “Surrounded By Heads and Bodies,” which was sort of boring and much too depressing in tone to be listened to regularly. With the overwhelmingly emotional vibe in the rest of the album, it just came to be rather excessive with the addition of this song.

All in all, I have to say I enjoyed this album. However, I do not see myself loving it as much as The 1975’s former two albums. Part of what I appreciated about The 1975 is that their music was “anytime music,” or fit almost all of my moods and could be quite uplifting while having more thoughtful lyrics. This is certainly not as fast-paced, aside from three or so of the singles, and could drag one down into an emotional pit of hopelessness over the state of life. That being said, if one did not go in hoping for more uplifting songs, this album is definitely amazing and I recommend listening to it when you are up to the feelings.