One Direction's Swan Song

From left: Are 1D’s Niall Horan, Styles, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson saying goodbye? One Direction’s Swan Song (For Now) WITH THE SUDDEN DEPARTURE OF ZAYN on its last album, 2014’s ballad-heavy Four. Here, when the Malik in March, One Direction, one of the boys once again go trawling the ’80s for inspiration, they swap biggest boy bands in history, officially became a Journey-style power-schlock for songs like “What a Feeling,” foursome. This naturally bolstered the Beatles a soulful soft-rocker strong enough to be someone’s third- comparisons fans have been making since 2011, favorite Hall & Oates jam. “Walking in the Wind,” from the when these new-millennium long-haired British album’s deluxe edition, is Paul Simon’s Graceland for beginners. lads topped the Billboard 200 with their debut Best of all: the booming stadium-doo-wop oddity “Never ONE DIRECTION album, Up All Night. Theirco) three subsequent Enough,” which amazingly blends “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” Made in the A.M. studio LPs also reached No. 1, and with with Phil Collins’ “Sussudio.” Columbia/Syco “Perfect” — the second single from Made in the As for Beatles-biting bits: Opener “Hey Angel” pairs A.M., their fifth album — the formerX Factor psychedelic guitars and strings with a kind of John-and-Yoko U.K. contestants notched their fifth top 10 debut on the Billboard sentiment (“I wish I could be more like you/Do you wish you Hot 100, breaking a record held by the original Fab Four. could be more like me?”). “Olivia” has the downbeat guitar Made in the A.M. arrives amid rumors that 1D will take an strokes of “Getting Better” and the whimsical orchestration of extended break in 2016 to focus on solo pursuits. But if break “Penny Lane.” The short and sweet acoustic ditty “I Want to actually means breakup, as some have speculated, this new Write You a Song” is 1D’s “Blackbird” or “Two of Us.” record could be the band’s Abbey Road — the final word from No matter what One Direction references, though, the boys John, Paul, George and Ringo. And believe it or not, the set has wind up sounding like what they are: a prefab 21st-century pop some blatantly Beatles-esque moments. machine whose crack team of producers and writers (most To be clear, Made in the A.M. is not a world-changing record, notably longtime collaborators Julian Bunetta, Jamie Scott and 50 years from now, people won’t study the cover photo to and John Ryan) churns out boilerplate love songs that rarely see whether Harry Styles — arguably 1D’s dreamiest dreamboat feel personal or look beyond 1D’s vacuum-sealed bubble-gum — is sending some secret message with the way he’s sitting. It’s world. The key exceptions are “Perfect” — a cool synth-pop not even the type of top 40 album that poptimist tastemakers tune Styles seemingly co-wrote in response to ex-girlfriend will deem secretly cool and dare indie kids to like. It does, Taylor Swift’s strikingly similar kiss-and-tell “Style” — and however, highlight 1D’s many charms — tight harmonies, Ginsu- “History,” the jaunty acoustic singalong that closes the album’s sharp hooks, a mix of boyish playfulness and melodramatic standard edition. With a winking line about “mini-bars, lover-man anguish — and points a way forward for four talented expensive cars, hotel rooms and new tattoos,” the track is guys looking to transcend pop-rock frivolities like 2011’s “What end-credits music capping five years of triumph. “We could be Makes You Beautiful” and 2013’s “Best Song Ever.” the greatest thing the world has ever seen,” they sing, a little With these 13 tracks — nine of which the band had a hand bummed but mostly just excited for what’s next. As we say YUI MOK/PA WIRE/AP IMAGES WIRE/AP MOK/PA YUI in writing — One Direction does maturity much better than goodbye, they say hello. —KENNETH PARTRIDGE NOVEMBER 14, 2015 | WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 47.

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