The Indie Scene

When writing critically about an album from a band whose previous offerings you’ve enjoyed quite a bit and have even had their faces on your wall at one point, you’re bound to feel some sort of affliction to be dishonest and please as many people as possible. After all, The 1975's fans are a scary bunch so, trust me, no one is blaming you. I’m hoping that I can be as truthful as possible and pick apart each song the way I perceive it and not simply give it a straight up 10/10 due to the band’s status.  Before I listen to Notes On A Conditional Form, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on what I’ve heard so far. Mostly, what I have heard is that there are quite a few filler songs and that the stand out songs are simply the singles already released. This is often the case; it takes a skilled musician to make a completely flawless album from beginning to end and I can't say I've seen it done often.  Matty Healy is well-known for being controversial with his potty mout...

Where do I start? I'd heard many things about The Growlers live, particularly Brooks Nielsen's vocals not being as good live as they should be. With this in mind, I had my expectations lower than they should've been before I had even entered The Albert Hall. Little did I know that they would go on to be my favourite live performance I've ever seen; which is quite an achievement, given that I've seen over fifty artists. In 2018 I had the pleasure of seeing Arctic Monkeys live and, in my opinion, The Growlers made them seem like nothing. However, I think the difference in venues had a big fixture in the way they both sounded; considering Albert Hall can hold 2,500 people and FlyDSA Arena can hold 13,600 in comparison. If Arctic Monkeys had played Albert Hall - not the Royal one - they would've blown me away too. Whilst they were still incredible, something about being a few rows away from the stage at The Growlers just changed the atmosphere completely for me. ...