10 Best Manchester Albums Of The 2010s

3. A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships - The 1975 (2018)

Their first album to be produced by themselves gave The 1975 full creative freedom on A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, and we want more.

The album is often given flak by bohemian music critics, who feel the band are ripping off Radiohead. While the closing track I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) does nick the chords from No Surprises, the album's conversation on tech is more of an evolution than a direct copy of OK Computer.

A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships does what it says on the tin, and furthering a conversation on our sad society with an effectively blank cover. A declarative statement to take the music for what it is, while furthering a conversation about how technology has numbed our feelings.

The album opens with their signature The 1975 title track opener with a hauntingly beautiful piano number to begin to soothe and drag the listener from the dregs of millennial blues.

If this is only the first in the Music for Cars album cycle, then we cannot wait for the next two to eclipse A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.

While we might not go as far to say it is their masterpiece equivalent OK Computer, it may very well be their The Bends. Their next album Notes on a Conditional Form will release in February 2020.