Liam Payne - LP1

The Guardian 40

(Capitol)

Finding your identity as a solo artist after handing your teenage years over to a pop band can be notoriously tricky. Liam Payne, One Direction’s erstwhile resident safe pair of hands, seems to have settled on a curious, Unilad-sponsored approximation of Ed Sheeran (who co-writes two songs here) and Drake, eschewing his Wolverhampton roots to become Miami’s least convincing playboy. On the abysmal Rude Hours, one of a handful of generic trap bops, he coos: “Meet me in the parking lot... might be a bad idea I’ll probably do your ass in the car”, while Weekend and Both Ways, the latter about a threesome, are as boring as they are eye-rolling.

Related: Liam Payne on life after One Direction: ‘It was touch and go. I was slowly losing the plot’