Well Directioners, it finally happened. On Friday November 13, One Direction released their last album before taking a year-long hiatus, which has the potential to last even longer. While the next year will be spent by many of us eagerly awaiting the news that the boys will indeed get back together come 2017, while equally dreading the news that this is truly the end, we can take solace in the fact that Made In The A.M. is probably their best album yet.
Over the span of 1D’s career, there is a clear transformation from being a manufactured, teenybop band, to a pop rock group of tattooed bad-asses. It is almost as if Harry Styles’ hair grows an inch with each new song that chooses guitar over synth. Made In The A.M. is no exception to the metamorphosis of the group. While some songs do nostalgically choose poppy rhythms over the more mature rock sound recently established by One Direction, the majority of the album is nothing short of phenomenal.
It’s no secret One Direction is occasionally held in comparison to The Beatles, and a couple of the songs are fairly deserving of that assessment. “Olivia” boasts themes that sound like a cross between “Penny Lane” and “All You Need Is Love”, while “I Want to Write You a Song” has lovely-yet-simple guitar parts characteristic of “Blackbird”. Made in the A.M. appears to replace commonplace boy band sounds for those from the sixties, a trend demonstrated in the swing of “History” and the intro to “Wolves”, which sounds like it could be “Build Me Up Buttercup” instead of a One Direction song.
The album falters in a few selections. “Hey Angel” deals with deeper themes than most of 1D’s songs, but the message is drowned in synth and weird melodies. “Perfect” has the potential to be a hit, but the drum beats overpower everything else (in fact, I highly recommend checking out the acoustic version of “Perfect”, which is much easier and pleasing to listen to). “What a Feeling” and “Walking in the Wind” are lackluster songs that get lost in the success of the others on the album.
Made In The A.M. shines in “End of the Day”. Easily one of the band’s best tracks released, when the song starts it sounds like a fast-paced so-so song; however, when the chorus comes, the audience is swept up in soaring melodies and an instantaneous gush of emotion. “End of the Day” turns into an addictive anthem in the span of a few seconds, then falls back into the opening theme in the same amount of time. The ebb and flow of the beat keep the listener mesmerized. “End of the Day” takes a chance—it’s practically two songs in one—and the risk absolutely pays off. If you listen to nothing else on Made In The A.M., listen to this song.
The names of the songs on Made In The A.M seem to be wishing Directioners farewell. With “History”, “End of the Day” and “Love You Goodbye”, it’s almost as if the boys are trying to tell us something. Though all One Direction fans are praying that the year-long hiatus remains just that, if this is last we will hear of the boys, we should be grateful they are going out with Made In The A.M.