1D’s new direction? Back to the Eighties!
One Direction: Four (Syco)
Verdict: Still heading up
HAVING swept all before them since being put together from a batch of discarded X Factor hopefuls four years ago, One Direction have spectacularly exceeded expectations. They are now the biggest pop group in the world, having headlined the biggest stadiums and topped charts on both sides of the Atlantic with every album. So it’s no surprise to find them sticking to their winning formula here.
As its title suggests, this is the quintet’s fourth album, that figure alone an indication of how far Simon Cowell’s one-time rejects have come. And it takes up from where last year’s Midnight Memories left off, embracing more mature rock influences to edge the boys further away from bubblegum pop.
The move towards rock rather than the more obvious R&B and electro-pop styles favoured by most of their peers can be traced back to the band’s second album, Take Me Home, and the Comic Relief mash- up of One Way Or Another and Teenage Kicks.
But while Take Me Home and Midnight Memories broadened the band’s appeal with crunchy guitars, Radio Ga Ga- style claps and anthemic tunes that cast Harry Styles as a young Mick Jagger, t he rock influences are now more subtly integrated.
Amid the pop hooks and harmonies, there are traces of Eighties guitar groups like Foreigner and Bon Jovi — booming drums, shimmering keyboards and grandstanding riffs designed to appeal to all ages.
Teenage girls, however, remain the band’s principal t arget. One Direction sullied their squeaky-clean image when video emerged of Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson apparently sharing a marijuana joint on tour in Peru, but Four concentrates on the wholesome themes of young love lost and gained that have been teenybop staples since the Fifties. Catchy current single Steal My Girl reminds any would-be suitors that ‘she’s been my queen since we were 16’, while optimistic acoustic ballad 18, written by long-term collaborator Ed Sheeran, tugs at young heartstrings by suggesting playground romance can blossom into adult love.
Only on the excellent Night Changes are there hints that the quintet, who co-wrote ten of the 12 songs here with a team of established hitmakers, might eventually l eave innocent concerns behind them. A harmony- dri ve n pop number dreamily reminiscent of The Eagles’ Lyin’ Eyes, it examines the tensions between a mother, looking back ruefully on her own youth, and her adolescent daughter.
Elsewhere, it is helter- skelter business as usual. Even the tracks that begin acoustically, such as Ready To Run, quickly pick up momentum as they rush headlong towards big, rousing choruses.
No Control is raucous and singalong. Where Do Broken Hearts Go is a classic boy-band tear-up that lies close to Take That. Those looking for clues to the private lives of the heartthrobs will be disappointed. Stockholm Syndrome, co-written by Harry, features the line ‘who’s this whisper, telling me I’m never going to get away’, but there are no mentions of his fling with Taylor Swift (who cheekily gave the title Style to a track on her new album).
But One Direction don’t need to get too personal yet. Having moved the boy- band genre away f rom blazers and choreographed dance routines, they remain imperious enough to prosper for at least one more studio album before the inevitable solo careers begin.