No artists are better equipped for our quarantine-induced digital dependency than the 1975. They were so prepared that they already had a song about “getting naked on FaceTime” — as singer Matty Healy put it — written and ready to go for their upcoming album, Notes on a Conditional Form.
“If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” opens with some opulent vocal flexes from FKA Twigs before shimmying and shaking like a lost Duran Duran hit. On the track, Healy details an online romance with a beautiful girl who would like him better if he did indeed get naked on FaceTime. The opening lyrics “I see her online/All the time” feel almost too real for these socially distant times, but for Healy and the rest of the 1975, this is only a taste of a greater discourse about relationships and the internet that they’ve been engaging in through their music over three albums. I mean, they literally named their last album A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. As always, they cover the topic with breezy Eighties glam, and “Too Shy” quickly joins an elite pantheon of catchy songs about virtual sex, like ‘NSync’s “Digital Get Down” and Soulja Boy’s “Kiss Me Thru the Phone.”
The 1975 will be putting out Notes on a Conditional Form in May as planned, setting the release date for May 22nd. Their previously planned tour has been postponed.
Find a playlist of all of our recent Songs You Need to Know selections on Spotify.
