As generational demarcators go, there are few more electrified than Auto-Tune. The vocal effect is layered over passages of this significant third album by the 1975, disguising singer <person>Matt Healy</person> in a kind of depersonalised, tear-stained fatsuit. It’s best to go with the Auto-Tune as just another emblem of this band’s self-conscious hyper-modernity, in which genre is immolated and our online co-dependency is scrutinised by those guilty of it. <person>Healy</person> even hands over to Siri for a song about millennial emotional foolhardiness, but he’s soon back in himself again, throwing out tropical pop about infidelity on TooTimeTooTimeTooTime, or digital jazz-pop about dirty spoons on Sincerity Is Scary.
Conclusion? Modernity has failed us, the internet is a snakepit, and opiates are dangerous – the other timely take-home from an album that manages to make thoughtful mainstream pop out of the most cliche-ridden topics. Overall, it’s not as gleeful as their last one, but melodic light relief abounds, as on the Belinda Carlisle outtake that is It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You). Those conclusions feel earned, not merely hashtagged.