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The 1975 Is Counting Down to June 1 as New Album Looms

Photo: Rex/Shutterstock
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The 1975 seems to be counting down to new music.

After wiping their social media accounts (usually a signal of new music from an artist), the band has shared a few cryptic updates, finally directing fans to their website on Tuesday. The site, which crashed likely due to increased traffic, includes a clock which seems to be counting down to June 1.

The band is expected to be releasing new music soon and has long teased their third album Music for Cars, but it appears it could be out sooner rather than later. As NME notes, frontman Matty Healy hinted at a June 1, 2018 release back in July 2017, simply tweeting the date (without a year) and the band's name.

The website update comes as The 1975 posters were spotted over the weekend in London and Manchester. The displays explicitly bare the band's name and album title, as well as a very small inscription of "2018—2019 'MFC,'" likely referring to the Music for Cars "era," which would presumably include a world tour into next year.

As we've previously mentioned, Healy has made no secret of referring to the next project as the final installment of a trilogy, which was led to much speculation about the band's future.

"It’s always been called [the end of an era] and we were always going to do a trilogy of records," Healy said last April in an interview with Zane Lowe. "I’m not saying that after this record it’s the end of The 1975 but it’s definitely the end of an era."

The band's sophomore record I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it was among Variance's 50 Best Albums of 2016. The new record has been one of our 45 Albums to Watch for in 2018.

Healy has previously said he's aiming for a big, career-defining LP. "If you look at third albums, [Radiohead's] OK Computer or [the Smiths'] The Queen Is Dead, that's what we need to do," he said in a recent interview. "I want people to look back and think our records were the most important pop records that a band put out in this decade."

While it wasn't immediately clear if it's a single or the album coming on June 1, it's obvious something will be out on that day. And if history is any indication, bands typically don't tease one song a whole month in advance. It's also worth noting, the album could very well arrive without a lead single, as fellow U.K. outfit Arctic Monkeys will release their own new album on May 11, without sharing any songs in advance.

Anyway, June 1 it is. And so the countdown begins.