The 1975 – “Frail State Of Mind”
The 1975 have evolved into the kind of band for whom every song is its own strange entity, tethered to the others in sensibility but not necessarily sound. To wit: So far the two songs we’ve heard from next year’s Notes On A Conditional Form were a cinematic five-minute instrumental overlaid with a speech from teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg (before her viral breakout moment) and a violently aggressive rocker called “People” with a video in which Matty Healy’s look split the difference between Marilyn Manson and the Joker.
The third track they’re sharing from the album swerves once again, albeit back toward sounds they’ve worked well with in the past rather than another radical departure. “Frail State Of Mind,” the fourth song on the new album’s tracklist, is a soft-rock ballad that matches drizzly autumnal textures with a brisk programmed beat informed by Burial-style dubstep. It’s essentially a tender, hyper-modern lullaby about depression, with Healy putting a fresh spin on familiar themes: “Go outside? Seems unlikely / I’m sorry that I missed your call / I watched it ring; ‘Don’t waste their time’ / I’ve always got a frail state of mind.”
This is lovely stuff, so listen below.
Notes On A Conditional Form is out 2/21 via Interscope/Dirty Hit. In a Beats 1 interview, Matty Healy says the next single is called “Me And You Together Song.”