So this morning, after my alarm went off at 8:30, I got dressed pretty speedily and headed to the city (despite the rain) to grab a copy of One Direction’s new album; Made in the A.M. (ultimate fan edition, of course). I tried to not look too keen as I wandered around hmv at 9:30 in the morning on my day off, looking at other DVDs that I quite frankly couldn’t care less about. I even stopped for a coffee before going into the store to try and look more nonchalant. Eventually, after sticking my card in the machine and stopping off to buy a fedora, I got home and hit play. But this wasn’t the first time I’d heard the album. Of course it was available on Spotify at 00:00 last night (I’d like to take this chance to thank Spotify for having their shit together last night) so I was up till about 3am listening to most of the songs for the first time.
Generally,
all of their music has matured and gotten more complex as they’ve grown up over
the past five years. And this comes through strongest in their lyrics. All of
the songs are about something that you could imagine they’ve experienced themselves
(especially Temporary Fix which is definitely about a one night stand) and
that their singer-songwriter pals have helped them transform all these things
into songs. There are 4 different genres on the album (honestly, I counted;
rock, pop, ballad, and big band, yes, really, big band is on there) so there's a song for everyone and it
proves to people who take the time to listen to the album, that One Direction
are actually talented and versatile and are not just that manufactured band
from the telly. On top of that, not just anyone gets to record at Abbey Road
Studios - so that’s another thing.
There are
some absolute anthems on this album. I was literally standing on my bed last
night with the volume on max (definitely bad for my ears) doing some John
Travolta style dance from Pulp Fiction. Never
Enough and Temporary Fix are the
obvious dance songs which will be such a delight to witness live when they tour
after the hiatus. These tracks are about being young and just having a good
time – including sex – and have an aspect of recklessness to them. Never Enough has a few screams and Temporary Fix is so fast paced its hard
not to tap your feet (and then forget about your work altogether and get up and
dance with your laptop on full volume). You’ve also got Drag Me Down, a real middle finger to all the critics who want to
write them off because of a song they produced 5 years ago. Gritty bridges in
all their ‘rock-ier’ songs really show that the band has developed musically
and are putting their own stamp over the ‘pop’ label they had thrusted onto
them.
Of course
they have some calmer songs that have a bit of a pop feel, but they also have
other aspects mixed in with this so it’s more palatable and they sound way
better. You’ve got songs like Wolves,
End of the Day, Hey Angel, Olivia,
and I’d go as far as to include (my favourite) Walking in the Wind in this category. They’re cool songs that are
perfect for early morning listening as they’re not too heavy. It’s just good,
toe-tapping music that has elements of electric guitar that I just can’t help
but sing along to as I stir my supernoodles; much to the dismay of my
flatmates.
In contrast
to this, there are a number of ballads that appear on the album, but they’re
the best One Direction ballads literally e v e r. There is no way to describe
how A.M. made me feel the first time
I heard the opening two lines (“wont you stay till the A.M., all my favourite
conversations always made in the A.M.”) – I had a chill run down my spine and in
the best way ever. If I Could Fly and
Long Way Down are paired beautifully
next to each other about a third of the way into the album. The guys previously
discussed how, with this album, they were able to focus on making songs they
just liked without having to worry about how they’d sound live – and that
absolute raw emotion in these songs and Love
You Goodbye and I Want to Write You a
Song is kind of breath-taking. They’re stripped back and honest with no
complicated music to distract the listener. Lyrically, throwing in lines like
“for your eyes only” and “I try to forgive you, but I struggle cos I don’t know
how” is something that’s so engaging and makes every single song personal. I
was sitting on my windowsill last night at 2am looking at the city lights and I
felt like Kate Moss or some shit; it was stunning.
But the
major surprise on this album was Olivia.
Liam leaked about 7 seconds of the song about a month ago and I have to admit I
wasn’t convinced. I thought that it was really poor and I shocked myself by
disliking a One Direction song (can we remember I’d heard only 7 seconds and
was very quick to judge – I have seen the error of my ways now I can assure
you). There's elements of big band in this song with the pace of the song and the instruments you can hear in it - who doesn't love a bit of trumpet and brass in a song? This is the track that was recorded at Abbey Road Studios which, not only
is that really fucking cool, it’s props to the guys for being serious artists.
They don’t let any old people record there and I think it’s hard evidence that
One Direction are legit artists and not just that boyband that people think are cool to slag off. Newsflash:
it’s not.
Basically, One Direction have blown up tiniest, most ordinary parts of the world and its pretty dazzling.
Basically, One Direction have blown up tiniest, most ordinary parts of the world and its pretty dazzling.
Some people will think that’s enough of a review, but if you want to read my
track-by-track analysis (who doesn’t really) then carry on reading below but if
not, that’s cool, thanks and kudos for making it this far. I’m glad you cared
enough about One Direction to even click on the link.
TRACKLIST:
1. Hey Angel
2. Drag Me Down
3. Perfect
4. Infinity
5. End of the Day
6. If I Could Fly
7. Long Way Down
8. Never Enough
9. Olivia
10. What a Feeling
11. Love You Goodbye
12. I Want to Write You a Song
13. History
Bonus Tracks
14. Temporary Fix
15. Walking in The Wind
16. Wolves
17. A.M.
Hey Angel
There is
very high chance that the angel they speak of in this song is Harry Styles
himself as they sing “do you wish you could be more like me” and I think we
could all do with being a bit more Styles because there isn’t a more chill,
good-hearted person than Harry. Anyway, this song isn’t One Direction’s musical
highlight, in fact the “oooooohhhh”s in the background are actually a bit
annoying, but they kind of the make the song in a weird way. It's a great song and I'm warming to it the more that I listen to it, it just wouldn't be one I'd play to others to make them a One Direction convert. The vocals on this
song are so mint even if they’re a little bit drowned – you find yourself
screaming the adlibs more than the lyrics. Either way, a definite driving
anthem.
Drag Me Down
Everyone’s
heard Drag Me Down by now and if you
haven’t – literally where the fuck
have you been? A definite dramatic hair-flicking chorus, wedged between
confident but thankful verses means this song is the perfect mix of
self-certainty and good old rock/pop music.
Perfect
This song
has a tattoo gun noise in it – do I need to say anymore? It’s a weird romantic
song. Discussed are the uncertainties of being in a relationship, but also the
perks of being in love. Yes, I would like secret rendezvous. Not only is the
video stunning (all in black and white, how edgy), but the bridge is a great
rise and fall. This was the first taste we got of emosh 1D on this album, and
it was a shit ‘okay brace yourself for this album’ because the other ballads on
this album fucked me up.
Infinity
Harry’s
favourite. It starts of small with just vocals and keyboard but by the end of
the track you’ve got the whole of London screaming “infinitaaaaay yeaaaaaah” in
harmony. It’s maybe the least One Direction-y song on the album; if you played
it for anyone else the last people they’d guess it was would be One Direction.
I think there’s an element of frustration in this song; “when everybody wants
you” and “how many nights does it take to count the stars, that’s the time it
would take to fix my heart” show how fame has obviously not been a smooth road
for any of them and its that honesty which is the deal clincher for this track.
End of the Day
I love the
story telling in the first verse of this song – “just me, her and, the moon”.
If you shrugged your shoulders and managed to turn that into the song; it would
be this song. There’s a funky backbeat to the verses that totally disappear
when the chorus starts and they don’t even sound like they come from the same
song. It’s an odd way to produce a song, but it kind of works. Or I’m so far up
their asses I’m blinded and I say it works anyway. Harry has a lot of vocal
highlights on this album but this is definitely one of the best ones. I really
love the lyrics of this chorus: “you want what you want, and you say what you
say, and you follow your heart, even though it’ll break sometimes” because you
can’t plan for the majority of things in life and this song captures that,
sometimes, you just have to roll with it. It’s also my favourite of the songs
they released before album release day.
If I Could Fly
The first
of the painful pair. This song essentially says “we’re really close now and
I’ve got your back pal” and it resonates a lot within me, not for the
connotations with romantic relationships, but for friendships that you make.
It’s really quiet musically, there’s just violins and a piano and some mint
vocals. There’s a bit at the end of the song where the four guys sing a line
each and it hurts my feelings: “(Louis) for your eyes only, (Niall) I show you
my heart, (Harry) for when you’re lonely, (Liam) and forget who you are”.
There’s a delicious high note from Harry followed by a passionate and emotive
final chorus where they all push their vocals to the limit and the harmonies
are spectacular. A proper nice ballad.
Long Way Down
A bit more
defeated than If I Could Fly or a positive
song – it made me cry the first time I heard it because I was so unprepared to be
hit with something like this. Not in a
i-love-one-direction-and-i-love-every-single-one-of-their-songs-so-much-im-a-12-year-old-white-girl
type way, more in a this is so honest and raw and there was no way I’d thought
of this aspect of my life. I think if any song talks about the difficulty of
growing up and not being able to change the past, then its this one. It’s
heart-breaking. We’ve all got things we’d do differently and especially because
they’re a few years older than me and are in the public eye literally everyday,
they’ve probably got more things they’d redo. It never ceases to amaze me the
places music can take you to, whether it be The 1975, The Smiths, The Rolling
Stones, or One Direction.
Never Enough
Like on FOUR, One Direction really want to fuck
with you with the order of the tracklist on this album. It’s the second raciest
song on the album because it’s difficult to look past the indirect lyrics about
needing relentless sex and not even caring about getting a broken heart. Also
you literally cannot ignore the grunts and screams in the background. Asides
from this, its quite funky with the solid bass line in there. You’d definitely
dance along if you were having a sleepover with your pals and it was 2am and
you were wearing your onesie, swinging the tail around and giving your best
friend a fake come on.
Olivia
What.
Happened. Here. I cannot believe that this happened to One Direction. Big Band
and Abbey Road Studios happened to One Direction. If you’d have told me this
time last month that One Direction had a big band song in the pipeline I
would’ve laughed in your face, but now its infront of me and I’m still a bit
gobsmacked to be fair. It is a love
song but it’s so mental. Even Liam in their Radio 2 interview said that this is
just nuts. You can hear Louis going “no way” at the end of the song and I think
that’s a pretty appropriate reaction because there is no way in a zillion years
that I’d pair One Direction with big band – but it really works. The rise and fall in the song is amazing and its just
so typical of that genre of music, you can almost hear Niall’s inner Michael Bublé
fan crying from inside him. It’s just a really fun song about being in love
which, yeah it’s very overdone, but there’s nothing quite like a love song is
there? It shows just how versatile they are and it makes you really happy when
you listen to it, or maybe it makes you feel like you belong in a musical – bit
of both.
What a Feeling
They
released this one pre-album too and the first thing I thought of was S Club
Junior’s New Direction (RT if ur a tru 90s kid) with their magic carpet music
video. Apart from that, its one of their songs that
I could take or leave and I do feel a bit guilty for saying that but it doesn’t
do a lot for me. Its really chilled out and it's good to have a calm song on the album to break up the tracklist - they've considered our feelings when choosing the order of the songs on this album unlike on FOUR.
There’s not much substance to this song as it doesn’t really rise and fall or
peak and trough or do anything really. But Niall does have a killer solo just
before the penultimate chorus.
Love You Goodbye
Louis’
shining vocal moment on Made in The AM
without a doubt. It’s actually really sad but does sound a bit like its about
having break up sex – “if tomorrow you wont be mine, wont you give it to me one
last time, oh baby let me love you goodbye”. I mean, that’s okay, they’re 21+,
do you expect them to still be singing about the cute girl in their English
class? Louis said he had a real tie to this song and I think everyone knows
he’s talking about his break up with Eleanor, but anyone who’s been through a
break up could’ve written this song or can relate to this song. It’s only right
that they gave Louis the bridge and he friggen smashes it – you can only
imagine what this would be like live, the arena would be in a stunned silence.
I Want to Write You a Song
A song
about writing a song … really stretching for ideas here 1D. Nevertheless, this
track is so gentle and mellow, the song is acoustic too which has a nice
effect. It’s nice to break up the heavy ballads and heavy dancing songs that
come before it on the tracklist too. In my opinion, this one’s about struggling
to compose something to express accurately how you feel about someone. I can
relate to that because I’m a serial double-texter and have been know to send
paragraphs at 3am to people who mean the most to me as I lie upside down in my
bed. It’s also lovely to hear something that’s so human, miscommunicating is
frustrating so if this is a song about being frustrated because you’re trying
your hardest to get your feelings across- “everything I need I get from you,
giving back is all I wanna do” – its nice to know that even superstars struggle
with this too.
History
This one is
allegedly the song for the fans, I mean it kind of feels like it – “you and me
got a whole lotta history, we could be the greatest team that the world has
ever seen” – its certainly a nod to their unprecedented success and how they
survived the rollercoaster they’ve been on in the last five years. I’m a fan of
a good clap in a song (probably why I like Disclosure’s music too) and this one
has it running throughout and a guitar – the simpler, the better. It’s a good
way to gently pick up the tracklist after the fragility of I Want to Write You a Song before you’re thrown into Temporary Fix.
Temporary Fix
I got a bit
of a shock from listening to Niall talk about this one and those ‘grungy’ nights.
He was quite honest about how this song is basically about having a one night
stand without explicitly saying that it is
about that. There’s bits that are a bit raunchy; “we can roll in the darkness,
let me touch you where your heart is”, but its very clear about not putting
labels on these things; “and we can call this what you like”. It’s another
upbeat tune which opens with Niall strongly leading the song and he carries that
on throughout the song. Even if Harry and Louis’ solos dominate the song, it’s
a very playful song with some great drums in the brief instrumental towards the
end of the song. Many people on twitter say this is their favourite because its
just feel good music about having fun – and, if that’s your thing, then go get
your fix.
Walking in The Wind
Without
(much) doubt, this song is my favourite on the album. Before the album was
released, I watched a video of Harry talking about his inspirations for this
song (Paul Simon would you believe) and it was cool to understand how they take
their own inspirations and bring them into their music, especially in this song.
This song is special to me because it talks about how people can go their own
ways but still be really close. It also brings in that ‘uncertainty about the
future’ thing which is always a bit of a tear-jerker – “goodbyes are
bittersweet, but its not the end, I’ll see your face again, you will find me,
in places that we’ve never been, for reasons we don’t understand, walking in
the wind”. It’s upbeat and optimistic, and it’s reassuring without committing
to anything. The song makes you feel as if the unpredictability of life is
softened by the people who you keep in your life and that’s what really
matters. It has a great drop for the final chorus and all of Harry’s vocal
acrobats are in this song which, really, is just the icing on the top of a
pretty incredible cake.
Wolves
This song
is so jazzy, it opens with a jazzy guitar riff and is a real click-along song.
There’s a bit of a throwback to FOUR
with all the similes and metaphors in this track, but the lyrics are obviously
more mature than the last album and it would be so out of place on that record.
It’s your classic I’ll-do-anything-for-you kind of song; “one by one, I gotta
take them down, we can run and hide, ain’t going down without a fight”. You
could imagine the video being all the boys in different scenarios trying to
save their respective girls and getting absolutely battered; its probably
something to do with the wolves analogy. It’s a bit jokey and has a humourous
twist to it, it’s got a prominent keys backing which makes it more upbeat and
jolly. It’s a cheery, confident song showing they don’t take them selves too
seriously – they’re only in their early 20s as of now, so it’s the kind of
record you’d expect a group of young people to make.
A.M.
Are you ever listening
to an album and then you hear the album title in one of the songs and you’re
like ~yo~ because that’s what the opening of this song is like. I literally get
chills when I hear this song. Also, this is One Direction’s first (semi) expletive!
They said “speaking out of our asses” if you were wondering. In context, they’re
singing about the crazy, emotional chats you have with your friends after 5
pints, or the nights you stay up till stupid o’clock acting out conversations that’ll
never happen in your head – “won’t you stay till the A.M., all my favourite
conversations always made in the A.M.” I think on this album they really
capture the little things everyone does that are really personal and they blew
them up and chucked them on a billboard and it’s a bit like that bit in the Perfect music video where Harry’s lying
on that bed thing with his eyes screwed shut because he can’t bear to look at
the city being projected on the walls around him – but you’re forced to look at
yourself. It’s so brutally honest. It’s breath taking, scary, and
emotional - kind of like what being a fan of One Direction is like.
Summary: Olivia bangs, Long Way Down and A.M. made
me cry the second I heard them, Walking
in the Wind is my fave, Temporary Fix
is about gettin some, thank you for reading.
Listen to Made in The A.M. on Spotify here.
If you read all that; kudos because you just read over three and a half thousand words about One Direction – my brother.
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