Niall Horan - Flicker
The Guardian 40
The One Directioner drifts towards the middle of the road with a debut album apparently designed to punctuate rounds of Ken Bruce’s PopMaster
It would appear that at some point towards the end of their career as the World’s Biggest Boyband, One Direction were quietly ushered into a room and told they had to face the future. A hat of some description was solemnly produced and the band members told to draw lots from it, in order to see which one would pursue which standard post-boyband solo career. Zayn Malik got “attempt to reinvent yourself as a credible R&B artist”. Cheeky Harry Styles pulled out “vaguely alternative rock” – a tough gig that led to him releasing an album that, depending on your perspective, either demonstrated his deep knowledge of classic rock, or sounded like a bizarre one-man episode of Stars in Their Eyes, with Styles variously impersonating the Rolling Stones, Elton John, U2 and David Bowie. Still, better luck than Louis Tomlinson, who got “pop-dance collaborations with EDM producers” and Liam Payne, stuck with “be a bit like Justin Timberlake or something”.
Related: The new directions of One Direction: what do the solo projects tell us?
Continue reading... Thu Oct 19 14:00:03 GMT 2017The Guardian 40
The One Directioner drifts towards the middle of the road with a debut album apparently designed to punctuate rounds of Ken Bruce’s PopMaster
It would appear that at some point towards the end of their career as the World’s Biggest Boyband, One Direction were quietly ushered into a room and told they had to face the future. A hat of some description was solemnly produced and the band members told to draw lots from it, in order to see which one would pursue which standard post-boyband solo career. Zayn Malik got “attempt to reinvent yourself as a credible R&B artist”. Cheeky Harry Styles pulled out “vaguely alternative rock” – a tough gig that led to him releasing an album that, depending on your perspective, either demonstrated his deep knowledge of classic rock, or sounded like a bizarre one-man episode of Stars in Their Eyes, with Styles variously impersonating the Rolling Stones, Elton John, U2 and David Bowie. Still, better luck than Louis Tomlinson, who got “pop-dance collaborations with EDM producers” and Liam Payne, stuck with “be a bit like Justin Timberlake or something”.
Related: The new directions of One Direction: what do the solo projects tell us?
Continue reading... Thu Oct 19 14:00:03 GMT 2017