One Direction cry for Mumford
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One Direction are back with album number three – Midnight Memories.
Source: Supplied
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
MIDNIGHT MEMORIES – ONE DIRECTION [SONY]
SOUNDS LIKE: a boy band man up
IN A WORD: lucrative
RATING: 3 stars
Harry Styles is the most popular teenage boy alive. So it’s only fitting that on One Direction’s “grown up” third album he should document some of his own midnight memories.
The Imagine Dragons-esque Why Don’t We Go There pushes boy band boundaries with lyrics, “I know you want to take it slow, think about all the places we could go, if you give in tonight, let me set you free we’ll touch the other side, just give me the key.” And then: “We got all night, why don’t you stay, why don’t we go there.” Smooth.
Midnight Memories is a very “now” album. Mumford & Sons are credible and popular (One Direction are one of those things) so there’s a handful of tunes where the boys want to folk the world … gently.
Story Of My Life is Mumford-lite, Through the Dark is Mumford slightly heavier and Happily sounds like the Lumineers’ folkie Ho Hey.
Indeed, this album has many songs that are, er, familiar. The title track is their attempt at a We Will Rock You-style anthem, but not going rock enough to drop the “s” word and get a parental warning sticker to scare off parental purchases.
Diana recalls both Don Henley’s The Boys Of Summer and the Police’s Don’t Stand So Close To Me, Does He Know shamelessly tweaks Rick Springfield’s Jessie’s Girl riff. Radio-ready ballad Right Now sounds like One Direction doing One Republic – Ryan Tedder wrote it.
Something Great was written by Styles with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol – which fills the sickly sweet spot their previous albums’ Ed Sheeran-penned tracks did.
There’s more folkie acoustic guitars and some lovely string work but it’s no Chasing Cars.
The best thing here could be the shortest – a 2½ minute, rocky blast called Little Black Dress, bursting with hormones that is a welcome antidote to all the lyrics about how your boyfriend doesn’t understand you like I do (Does He Know), I want to spoon you all night (Happily), I’m better when I’m with you (the Coldplay-esque Strong) and baby come home but even if we’re apart you know I’m here for you girl (Don’t Forget Where You Belong).
Banged out in just three weeks on tour to be ready for the Christmas rush, Midnight Memories does everything it’s supposed to do, but 1D HQ still haven’t found them that classic, killer pop song. Oh well, there’s always album No. 4 – that’ll be ready this time next year.
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LATEST RELEASES
BRITNEY JEAN – BRITNEY SPEARS [SONY]
SOUNDS LIKE: she just doesn’t care any more
IN A WORD: generic
RATING: 1.5 stars
Britney claims this is her most personal album? So why does she continue to be made to sound like a robot? Perfume is the only time she sounds human – it flopped, so expect more vapid dance-pop like awful Will I Am duet It Shouldn’t Be Easy. Katy Perry reject Passenger (made with Diplo and Sia) is one of the only tolerable things here. The tuneless duet with her sister, Chilling With You, is the most rotten thing Brit has done since Kevin Federline. William Orbit does his nice, bleepy stuff on the spacey Alien, but her vocals are straight from Planet Autotune. She’s meant to be all sassy on Body Ache but it sounds as erotic as ordering a pizza. Maybe it’s time to set up shop in Vegas. Oh … / CAMERON ADAMS
TAYLOR HENDERSON – TAYLOR HENDERSON [SONY]
SOUNDS LIKE: barely legal pub rock
IN A WORD: familiar
RATING: 3 stars
Taylor Henderson arrived on The X Factor with just the occasional sook and nerves as the only things stopping him being an album-ready artist. So his post-show covers album is bullet-riddled fish, really. He’s got an Oz rock voice so the Chisel and Dazzler Braithwaite covers work. And he handles Augie March’s verbose One Crowded Hour with gusto. Moving out of pure karaoke mode, turning Girls Just Want To Have Fun into a folk romp was a risk that pays off. So it’s repeated on Fun’s Some Nights. And Michael Jackson’s Human Nature. Yeah, we get it. The No.1 original, Borrow My Heart, is exactly the Mumford-style route Tay should go down with his own songs. Best hurry. The public have short memories. / CA
LIVE FROM KCRW – NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS [KOBALT]
SOUNDS LIKE: a piano-led extrapolation/interrogation
IN A WORD: consummate
RATING: 4 stars
Nick Cave’s sense of humour isn’t often discussed. Looking more like Dr Zaius every day, the baddest seed of all rhymes “match” and “snatch” in Mermaids, a cut from their hypnagogic record Push the Sky Away. This 10-song live set mostly takes cuts from said album and works so well because Cave and co. sound like explorers willing to go wherever their headtorches take them, even when there’s no obvious way out, see Wide Lovely Eyes and Stranger Than Kindness. Cave, Ellis, Sclavunos and Casey (Grinderman!) are joined by Barry Adamson on organ and percussion for a tense and gut-clenching show that breaks its self-imposed shackles by gnashing out Jack the Ripper. / MIKEY CAHILL
SHANGRI LA – JAKE BUGG [UNIVERSAL]
SOUNDS LIKE: the world’s oldest teenager
IN A WORD: nostalgic
RATING: 3.5 stars
It’s not until Jake Bugg sings “we’re scared someone will tweet it” in There’s a Beast and We All Feed It that you’re reminded it’s not 1967. Brit Bugg, 19, is retro – think Dylan, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Mersey Beat – that vintage vibe. His second album in as many years (that’s what his heroes did) sees him upgrade to uber-producer Rick Rubin – a man who also likes the basics. It’s not all like the ’70s never happened – What Doesn’t Kill You could be an Arctic Monkeys track, Kingpin is spiky and Messed Up Kids and Kitchen Table burst with melodies. Ex Snow Patrol man Iain Archer returns as co-writer, but Bugg’s self-penned Me & You is a soundtrack/TV ad sync waiting to explode as a global “our song”. / CA
