One Direction, longer-lived and more constant than most boybands
The One Direction they have released five albums in their career, one per year from 2011 to 2015. Their third, “Midnight memories”was released on November 25, 2013. Needless to say, it conquered the charts in every corner of the world. What you can read in the lines below is the review he wrote for us at that time Pop Topoi.
One Direction have already reached their third album (in 24 months), which makes them longer-lived and more constant than most boybands. There doesn’t seem to be any air of dissolution in the group, much less the concern that a solo ego is hiding among the five: their success is solid and global in ways that were previously unimaginable. To launch this “Midnight memories”, for example, 1D made a live broadcast lasting seven uninterrupted hours visible to the whole world: YouTube provided streaming, Google Hangouts provided interactive features and gave fans the opportunity to talk or play with the band and their guests (among others, mentor Simon Cowell, Robbie Williams and Cindy Crawford). The marathon seemed like a version for teenagers of the recent YouTube Music Awards: in addition to the extraordinary visibility and ease of use of a similar event, no television channel could offer as much freedom or freshness. However, the party and relaxed atmosphere of this 1D Day Live is not found in the album they were promoting.
Longevity is earned through evolution and One Direction have chosen to do things gradually. It is evident, in “Midnight memories”, the desire to get closer to what Americans call Adult contemporary – where the emphasis is more on adult That contemporary. As happened in the previous album, in fact, there are many references to the past, and almost every song lends itself to the game of quotations. We find an attack à la Who in “Best song ever” and the Police in “Diana”, while for the tremendous “Little black dress” and “Midnight memories” the influences of Van Halen and Def Leppard have been identified. The most modern reference (so to speak) are the Lumineers in “Happily” and Mumford & Sons in “Story of my life”, and it is a very astute positioning move, because if with the first album 1D conquered little girls and with the second their mothers, in the third they also aim at a male audience. Maybe they will succeed, because the pseudo-folk songs are unexpectedly also the most appropriate.
The lyrics, as in “Take me home”, remain rather harmless and devoid of any space-time reference (an astonishing thing, for a group that lives on hashtags), but they work better than in the previous one because they are closer to the music.
And although there is no shortage of expert lyricists (“Right now” is written by the omnipresent Ryan Tedder, while the insipid “Something great” is by Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol), the best results are obtained when the kids write. “Story of my life”, on which all five collaborated, is by far the most heartfelt and engaging piece on the album. It’s surprising that a boy band is given permission to sing in the lead single: “When I die, these words will be written on my grave”, but epitaphs are welcome if they manage to bring out this transport in the interpretations.
Except for a few breaths of fresh air like “Best song ever”, “Midnight memories” does not want to entertain or show off sophisticated or fashionable tastes, but it is also an album that, despite its defects, makes One Direction very recognizable and draws a clear line between them and the rest of international pop.
