10 Overrated Rock Music Albums Of The 2010s
7. The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
The rocket powered rise of The 1975 is simultaneously understandable and totally baffling. On the one hand, a lot of the time the band shoots for the moon, commendably so. A lot of the time they come packing big concepts on record and, especially, live, and there’s no denying they connect with their intended audience.
When it doesn’t work, though, it really falls flat. Pretentious lyrics, ludicrous genre bending, and a tendency to fall back on the same retro ‘80s soft rock whenever they run out of ideas makes The 1975 a vexing band at least half the time.
A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships is the midpoint between the band’s early pop days and their true ascent into the stratosphere. It’s a mixed bag, and while the decent tracks outweigh the real duds, at its worst it can be like pulling teeth. The combination of autotune and route one state-of-the-nation lyrics on I Like America & America Likes Me is its annoying nadir.
When the band get less sonically adventurous on TooTimeTooTimeTooTime, it’s far less annoying, but then tends towards the boring. The album oscillates between dull and infuriating - neither is a great choice.