Payne stumbles on debut album
ONE DIRECTION FANS have reason to rejoice this holiday season: They get not just one, but two full albums from former members — Liam Payne and Harry Styles. Unfortunately for one of them, the reception will be frosty.
Payne’s 17-track LP1, released on Friday, never really gets off the ground, a collection of monotonous club songs that often sound like warmedover Justin Beiber rejects. It doesn’t help that some of the offerings are more than two years old.
The first tune - Stack It Up with A Boogie Wit da Hoodie - is the best and then the album falls off a cliff into a swamp of skittering drums, synth and libidinous lyrics (“Flippin’ that body/go head, I’ll go tails”). It breaks no new sonic ground and has a faintly musty whiff. (Weirdly, Payne finally stops grinding for a weepy original Christmas song at the very end.)
There’s a good reason for the first tune being good — it’s co-written by Ed Sheeran and Payne doesn’t try to disguise its origins, mimicking Sheeran’s vocal tics and flow. For a first album, Payne surprisingly doesn’t show up: He had a hand co-writing only four songs and fails to do anything interesting with his voice.
While Styles is off making fascinating, intriguing music, Payne is clearly phoning in his debut from the club. He sounds happiest on Both Ways, when he boasts about his girlfriend’s bisexuality. The album reaches ludicrous heights on Strip That Down, a twoyear old embarrassment that credits no less than 15 writers, including Sheeran, Quavo and even Shaggy, since they’ve lifted so much of his 19-yearold hit It Wasn’t Me. “You know I used to be in 1D (Now I’m out free)” Payne sings on it. The sound of freedom never sounded so banal.
Since the album’s release, Payne has come under fire for the track Both Ways, which didn’t go down well with some sections of the LGBTQ community. #Liampayneisoverparty is trending on Twitter, with people expressing their outrage on social media at the
Liam Payne
lyrics of Both Ways.
Payne has yet to address the comments but thanked fans who picked up the album. On Twitter, he shared, “Blown away by this reaction already! Thanks to everyone that’s picked up the album so far, your support doesn’t go unnoticed.”
Meanwhile, Payne’s bandmates Harry Styles and Niall Horan both dropped new music on Thursday. At midnight, Styles dropped a new love song titled Adore You from his upcoming album Fine Line, which releases on December 13, while Horan released the breakup tune Put A Little Love On Me with an accompanying music video, reports ew.com.
Horan recently told Music Choice that it’s “potentially my favourite song that I’ve ever written. I just love playing it. It was based on a breakup, of course.” In October, Horan released a music video for Nice To Meet Ya, signaling his return to the music scene two years after his first solo album, Flicker. AP, IANS