Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America

In April 2017, the 1975 announced Music for Cars, the follow-up record to their second studio album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016), which was set to be released in 2018. In August 2017, Healy teased "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" on his Instagram account as part of the album. However, in May 2018, Healy announced that Music for Cars would now represent an "era" composed of two studio albums. The first, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018), was released in November of the same year and did not include "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America". The band recorded the majority of the second album, Notes on a Conditional Form, in 2019 during their Music for Cars Tour, intending to release it in May 2019. Ultimately, Notes on a Conditional Form was released on 22 May 2020. "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" went through several iterations and rewrites before the group arrived at the final version. Healy told Ben Homewood of Music Week that the original version, which focused on a singular subject, was scrapped. He rewrote the song to focus on the prison–industrial complex. Dissatisfied, Healy reworked the song again to address the effects of religious oppression on young people "regardless of sexuality". Ultimately, Healy told Homewood that he created the final version using his favourite lines from each iteration. In this regard, the singer viewed "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" as the "ultimate [Notes on a Conditional Form] song"; having been composed through a patchwork of various notes. Healy contrasted the song with "Love It If We Made It" (2018) from A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018). The singer noted that unlike the explicit messaging presented in "Love It If We Made It" (2018), he deliberately made "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" more ambiguous with its subject matter. Bridgers, a fan of the 1975 and Daniel's friend, began exchanging "mutually appreciative" Instagram messages with Healy. Having written the final version of "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", the 1975 invited Bridgers to help record textures and harmonies for the song. Speaking to Carolina Gonzalez of Vogue regarding his collaboration with Bridgers, Healy said their work came about organically, and told Jeremy Gordon of The Face that she contributed a "country-emo Americana element". On 30 March 2020, Healy announced that "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" would be released as the album's fifth single on 2 April 2020. ==Music and lyrics==

"Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" has a length of four minutes and twenty-four seconds. Musically, it is a minimalist folk and acoustic ballad that incorporates elements of lo-fi, emo and alternative country music. Dork writer Martyn Young described the song as "very much lo-fi country in the vein of artists like Bright Eyes", while Jordan Blum of PopMatters called the track an "existential folk duet". "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" features a soft, sparse, stripped-down production containing gentle, windy atmospherics and electronic textures composed primarily of vocals and acoustic guitars. Its instrumentation is built on quiet drums, "distant and haunting" distorted horns and saxophones, brass flourishes, and synthesized strings. Jessie Atkinson of Gigwise called it "full mid-noughties, sad-girl folk" and compared the single's blend of folk and electronic music to the works of Bon Iver, Owl City, and Benjamin Francis Leftwich. "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" deals with themes of heartbreak, faith, sexuality, love, vulnerability, defeat and fragility. It is sung from the perspective of two closeted religious individuals struggling with an internal conflict between religion, sexual orientation, and personal identity. Lyrically, it revolves around Christianity's suppression of queer identities. The song opens with gentle, strumming guitars and muted horns as Healy discusses his love for Jesus, his mortality, and his existence. Lines such as "I'm in love with a boy I know / But that's a feeling I can never show" describe the need to hide his sexuality. Patricia Kolbe of Barricade said the track addressed the disharmony between faith, sexuality, and identity. Genius writer Kevin Loo described it as an "exploration of what it would be like to be trapped in faith while suppressing your sexuality." This opinion was shared by Gigwise's Dillon Eastoe, who saw it as envying the faith of religious followers and the freedom it affords them. Regarding the song's title, both Loo and Kolbe interpreted it as a reference to the widespread homophobia, LGBT rights opposition, and anti-LGBT policies prevalent throughout the United States in 2005. ==Reception==

Following the release of "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", several contemporary music critics praised the emotionally-charged lyrics. Mitch Mosk of Atwood Magazine called it an "achingly poignant" number, noting the confessional nature of the lyrics were similar in character to Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Smith. Consequence of Sound writer Ben Kaye praised the lyrical vulnerability of "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America", calling it "a crushing acoustic number". In her review of "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America" for The Diamondback, Rachel Hunt praised the "heart-wrenching production" and Healy's vocal performance, saying it "brings listeners quietly to their knees". Daniel Kohn of Spin said the song further expanded the group into new sonic territory, Jones regarded Bridgers' verse as the song's highlight, stating the "track really shines once [her] aching voice is introduced". number 38 on the US Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart and number 11 on the New Zealand Hot Singles chart. ==Promotion and music video==

In February 2020, Healy headlined a solo acoustic show in Australia to raise money for the 2020 Australian bush fires, where he performed "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America". To promote Notes on a Conditional Form, The 1975 and Ben Ditto commissioned 15 artists to create art videos for 15 songs on the album, focusing on themes of technology, hope, love, anxiety and violence. The artists used various mediums to create their films including 3D modelling, artificial intelligence, generative animation, motion-capture animation, performance and robotics. The videos were scheduled to be released over a three-month period, culminating in a free online exhibition entitled Artists Respond to NOACF. Spanish dancer and choreographer Candela Capitán was commissioned to create an art film for "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America". Upon release, the video was mired in controversy due to its explicit nature and quickly removed from Facebook and Instagram. Speaking on the controversy, Capitán said: "Their young audience understood the song as a praise to God and my video as a consecration to pornography [...] I felt really disappointed. It wasn't about the band liking my work, it was about how money and power always win when there's a loss of followers and views at stake." The video was later released by Capitán in October 2020, omitting the audio from "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America". ==Credits and personnel==

Credits adapted from Notes on a Conditional Form album liner notes. • Matthew Healy composer, producer, guitar, vocals • George Daniel composer, producer, keyboards, synthesiser, programming • Adam Hann composer • Ross MacDonald composer, double bass • Phoebe Bridgers additional vocals • Ben Lester pedal steel • Rashawn Ross trumpet • John Waugh saxophone • Jonathan Gilmore recording engineer • Robin Schmidt mastering engineer • Mike Crossey mixer ==Charts==