You know me, always right on the pulse. Striking while the iron's hot. Absolutely at the front of the pack.
Anyway, here's my incredible review of an album that came out in November.
Hey Angel
I don’t get it. I really don’t get it. I don’t get what it’s
about. I don’t get what they were going for. I don’t get why they decided to
make it the first track on the album. I was listening to Made In The A.M. as
background music when I was trying to sleep on the plane and every time this
came on I straight up woke the whole way up just to be like ‘wtf’. What I do
know, however, is that it sounds a heck of a lot like Millennium by Robbie
Williams. If Millennium by Robbie Williams were to somehow find itself in the musical Hair. This makes
me imagine a school bus floating down a flat rainbow animated in the style of
the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie. I really really don’t know what this song
is about.
Drag Me Down
When I first heard this I was on a
break from my soul-destroying retail job and I’m pretty sure as soon as that
beat dropped I felt my first positive emotion of the day. I will say
that when I hear this all I can think of is this one cover Fiona and I found by
a budding preteen girl band so now I have to do a little finger waggle/head bob combo
at “noboday noboday” or I feel incomplete, but realistically if anything that only adds to the enjoyment. I really do like this song. The bit
in Carpool Karaoke with James Corden when Harry belts out his little run makes
my heart soar. I think I feel very protective of this song because it was their
first real venture post-Zayn and I was just so proud of their morale.
Perfect
My mum likes this song a lot. I personally am all about the
acoustic version, especially layered over the top of Rainy Mood, but
shan’t fight a taste of the original. Certainly not. This reminds me of
Melbourne a lot so it makes me happy. What isn’t happy though is if you listen
to it with the mindset that this is them singing about the fact that it
doesn’t matter what they WANT in a relationship, all they can really offer is a
lil sumsum every now and then and if someone’s chill with that then great, but
otherwise there’s not much else they can do. I explained this viewpoint to
Fiona in great depth once whilst playing the acoustic/rainy mood combo and she
got very sad. Solid jam tho. Y'all know how I feel about a loud clappy drum
beat. Y'all know.
Infinity
Was a bit underwhelmed by this at first but it grew on me
when I think I was walking the line between sad and hopeful about a guy
probably. Yep just heard the line about the stars and it all came FLOODING
back. Once I was doing a great emotional performance of this in the living room
and Fiona changed the song and I got super pissed and stormed off. Great if
you’re just in the mood to feel a lot of feelings without putting yourself at
too much actual emotional risk. Good for a yell. The random guitar solo reminds
me of Coldplay. Once I went to a Coldplay concert for free the night before I
flew to England to meet up with the dude I would then go on to date for a year
and a half and they definitely had a bunch of confetti and pyrotechnics during
a bit of a song that sounded a lot like this at the Coldplay concert. I think it was Fix You. Side note, not a fan of the idea of someone igniting my bones. Infinidehhh.
End Of The Day
This is very much two separate songs. Two good songs, but
two entirely different songs sewn together with a three-bang. I have taken to
using this technique as a means of seamlessly changing topic or activity. Bored
of the convo? Hit ya couch three times and start something new. None the wiser.
Love CAN be frightening fa shore, Niall. I like to imagine that they started
writing the first song and got a bit stuck with the chorus and one of them
(probably Niall) was like OI HOW ABOUT THIS and just started belting out the
ALL I KNOW AT THE END OF THE DAY IS YA WANT WHAT YA WANT AND YA SAY WHAT YA SAY
and he just seemed so pleased and it was near the end of the writing process
and Harry just wanted everyone to be happy before their hiatus so he was like
‘you know what Niall, that’s great. That’s great, isn’t it guys?’ and everyone
was like ‘sure is!’ and they just went with it and that’s why Harry sounds so
enthusiastic during the chorus, because he’s just trying to be a good mate.
Musical compromise. Bonus points cos it's got my fav 'slamming a garbage can lid' drum beat in the chorus.
I also like when Harry yells the word HEART at 2:24.
If I Could Fly
This reminds me of a very sad song but I don’t know what it
is. It’s a sad song though that I only know because it’s on the soundtrack of a
lot of movies. I like this because it slots in very nicely to the version of
Harry’s personal life that I’ve convinced myself I’m super correct about. It’s
just quite a sweet song isn’t it. Lol I was just about to say ‘I’m not even
going to make fun of this song because it’s just cute' but then Louis swerved in
there with “I’ve got scars” and I snorted a bit and said ‘same mate’ also did
he just say “pink ass heart”? Awww Niall. Your personal life is a mystery, even
to me. I like when the little boys sing together. THIS SONG REMINDS ME A LOT OF
TOY STORY THAT’S IT. Maybe Toy Story 2? Pretty sure more than one song on this album reminds me of
Toy Story. I like the “I feel it, I feel it” bit in the bridge, I could see
that working really well in a gospel choir arrangement. Make it happen, Obama. HARRY'S PRECIOUS LITTLE VOICE BREAKING AT 2:37. It's actually adorable that they take turns singing a line each after the bridge. When Harry goes up singing “me” at 2:55 is hella Toy Story.
I’m really excited for
when I learn to love again and this starts to kill me a bit.
Long Way Down
This one sounds like another Robbie Williams song but I
can’t figure out which one. Maybe Better Man? Maybe Sexed Up? I dunno. I feel
like they were definitely listening to some grown up music while they were
writing this album cos little laddies
went from ‘chinny chin chins’ to ‘cathedral’. Like ‘cathedral’ isn’t a
particularly big word but I just feel like it’s one that they shouldn’t know.
They’ve been really into fire these last couple albums haven’t they. Rustic.
You may have guessed by this point that I do not particularly connect with this
song on an emotional level but that’s okay. Oh I just listened to the “we built
it up so high and now I’m falling, it’s a long way down” bit and I do actually
feel that. I dunno. Just not quite grasping it but that’s FINE. That’s fine.
This overall reminds me of the NOW! ITALY CD I got in Venice when I was eight.
2001 was a great year for europop.
Never Enough
ALL ABOUT IT. I yell-sing this in my room all the time. It
reminds me heaps of Pitch Perfect and I like to imagine that there is a whole
acapella group of hot guys singing this in a courtyard and I’m inevitably going
to end up having a really beautiful musical love story with the best one
because I walk past at some point during this song and he’s like I NOW
UNDERSTAND THE WORDS I DOTH SING AND CAN FINALLY SEE THE BEAUTY IN EVERY DAY
LIFE, MY EYES HAVE BEEN OPENED IN SO MANY WAYS #WHOISSHE also I love the HUAH
bits. Gotta do ‘em from ya diaphragm tho. Proper support is key. KYAHM OWNNNN
this is my actual jam won’t even pretend. The chorus is just my entire attitude
towards the start of relationships and I don’t think that’s maybe a great thing
but I also don’t care because it’s in a song now and that means it’s okay.
Olivia
Try and tell me this isn’t the theme song from an Australian
sitcom about family dynamics originally airing some time between 1965 and 1987.
I can literally see the dated title cards flicking through my mind. There is definitely
an unlikely teenage heartthrob son with a Beatles haircut posing with his sassy
younger sister and a man with a moustache who looks like a newsreader and at
the end the name of the show fades into view over the family sitting in their
aluva-luva-luva-living room. That is not to suggest that I dislike this song.
Quite the opposite. As anyone close to me will tell you, I find the way things
are pronounced infinitely funnier than what is actually being said (as evidenced
most prominently by my undying love for Stepbrothers), and as such the hook of
this song is right up my street. That might be the title of the sitcom. It does
make me pissed that my name isn’t Olivia though, but then I remember Madeleine
by the Backstreet Boys exists and sulk a bit quieter. I wanna know what they’re
so amped about when Harry says “no way” at the very end of the recording. Was
the whole thing improv? Did they do it in one take? Was Liam playing every
instrument in a one man band contraption? WHY WAS IT IMPRESSIVE ENOUGH FOR THAT
REA CTION PLEASE SOMEBODY JUST LET ME KNOW.
 |
| I was going to go for only recent Zayn-less pics but honestly I couldn't not. |
What A Feeling
Reminds me of being in a cabin in the 70s and everything is
brown, yellow and orange and there are those really ugly chairs that came back in for
god knows what reason recently with dark wood and square ugly coloured cushions. There
are also definitely animal pelts heavily woven into the décor. If this and Hey
Angel were the first songs I heard off this album I would have been soooooo
damn worried yall I would have thought Harry’s hair had become an independent
sentient being and kidnapped them all and dragged them back to the 70s. Full disclosure I think in a previous life I must have died a really messed up (maybe Manson-related) death in the late 60s/early 70s because anything from or resembling that period
just makes me so uncomfortable. Including this song. I don’t know why. But I don’t
feel safe right now. I could not even tell you what the lyrics are. I just need
it to end.
Love You Goodbye
Aaaaawwwwww I love this song. As soon as the track listing
came out I was like ‘I am going to love that one’ and as soon as I saw that
Louis wrote it I was like ‘this is going to destroy me’ and as soon as I heard
it and didn’t immediately feel like I was going to throw up I knew I was
actually over my ex and that’s a fun little piece of trivia for you right
there. I have a really good idea for a mashup of this and two other songs but
#nospoilers #geturowngeniusideas. This reminds me of the point in a breakup when you’re doing a bit better and you just start to feel like a bit of a whiny
entitled child. I think that’s the bargaining stage. MY HEART’S ALREADY BREAKIN
BABY GO ON AND TWIST THE KNIIIIIFE is the best part to yell dramatically, I
also like “mercy” pronounced “MURSAAAAYYYYYYY” in the first prechorus. The
guitar bit is very power ballady and we know how I feel about power ballads so
obvz this takes it up a whole nother level in my books. I can imagine the end
of this playing as the finale at a stadium with hella pyrotechnics going off
and everyone’s really emotional. Kind of like that Coldplay concert I told you
about a while back except I would actually pay to go see 1D and I don’t think I
got emotional at Coldplay I think I was mainly cold and a bit drunk.
I Want To Write You A Song
I hope they are giving credit where credit’s due and paying
royalties to Nichole337 because this is absolute plagiarism of her classic hit
‘I Wanted To Write A Song For You’. Linked here for your enjoyment. This one
reminds me of the tiny precious angel I have managed over time to convince
myself that Harry Styles obviously must
be. I think I’m only really starting to be in the right place in my life for
this song now and I have no idea why that is but it’s scaring me a bit, won’t
lie. I’m not good at calmly experiencing emotions. Much more comfortable with
the feelings I can yell. As this plays I have been picturing a really nice
quiet leafy garden (in my head my instinct was to describe it as a ‘fairy
garden’ so take from that what you will) and there’s a little pond in the
garden with big rocks around the edge and maybe a fountain birdbath thing on
one side and there’s a little paper boat going across the little pond and I
genuinely have not got a single clue where this mental image is coming from and
am starting to wonder if this is some sort of echo of a broken childhood
resurfacing but tbh my childhood wasn’t even broken so it can’t be that also I
really want to know who’s put the little paper boat on there. I think that’s
enough of this song.
History
TOY STORY. I’ve definitely heard this song too many times to
write an objective review but I can tell you it has always reminded me SO HARD
OF TOY STORY. I like it a lot but that’s hardly surprising because you can
yell-sing the chorus can’t you. Shout out to Liam because the little ‘oh’s in
the background of the chorus are easy to pass over but they make all the
difference and truly tie the piece together. WE CAN MAKE IT YOU KNOW IT YOU
KNOW! YOU AND MAY this is a cute little song isn’t it. Makes me feel somehow
justified in investing so many years of my life into this small cohort of
various puppies. It truly warms my heart so much that the glaring grammatical errors don't even bother me. I do, however, disagree with the line about good champagne not meaning anything so tbh Louis if you want to send me any crates of Veuve you have lying around the house I'd be down.
Temporary Fix
The start of this sounds like a spotify ad so I always get
really annoyed and confused when it comes on my itunes. This really does not
sound like a 1D song to me. I don’t think I necessarily dislike it but it
definitely reminds me really strongly of something else that I'm not fond of but don’t know well
enough to identify. However, mark my words there will be a point at which I feel really
#offtherails because probably a boy will be mean to me and then I’ll get into
it. I feel like this would be on the same musical timeline as Little Black
Dress. Like the 1D that did Little Black Dress would end up making this song, the 1D that did Last First Kiss would do Love You Goodbye and the 1D
that did Fool’s Gold would do Infinity or If I Could Fly. I know what I mean.
Walking In The Wind
Initially sounds like a watered down version of Oh What A Night playing during the overture
before Jersey Boys starts. I feel this song fits in atmospherically with What A Feeling but I
like it much more. This is making me have a really weird little mental
powerpoint presentation of select moments in my life right now and I don’t
quite understand. Definitely one for playing whilst in transit, especially I’d
imagine on trains. Or if you’re on an especially poignant bus journey through
the countryside to meet up with someone of emotional significance. Definitely
not thinking of specific personal examples there. Definitely don’t need to stop
that now. Definitely won’t need to discuss this with Fiona in the morning.
Wolves
This would also fall under the same umbrella as Hey Angel, What A
Feeling and Walking In The Wind, but much more similar vibes to the latter because I actually like it. I
liked this a lot when it first came out, haven’t listened to it in a while but
I can see myself getting back into it again soon. I don’t know how to describe
the mindset that best accompanies playing this song loudly through headphones
but I will try and give you some key words. Determination. Sunglasses. Windswept.
Really good hair. Beverage. Confidence. Nonchalant. Probably my Zara leather
jacket. Slight air of vengeance.
A.M.
Precious. I love convos in the A.M. too, little baes.
Whether it’s ‘haven’t gone to sleep yet’ A.M. or ‘meeting up early to kick the day off
right with a bitch sesh at brunch’ A.M., I'm all about those morning chats. I like
that they said ‘asses’. This song makes me want to accomplish things so I end up
being one of the ones that does actually ‘make it’, and also form meaningful
friendships with other people who also enjoy staying up very late and/or
brunching. I do genuinely just relate to this a lot on a very calming yet
motivational level. A lovely little note on which to end this album and the
pre-hiatus era of 1D. When none of them had babies. And Liam wasn't dating Cheryl Cole. And before we all became
very close personal friends.
Holler at me if there are any albums (whether they're 100% up my street or completely the opposite for your own entertainment) that you think I should tackle in review form. Not The 1975 though. Maybe The 1975. I dunno. They've not really brought many words with them this time round have they. No complaints, just doesn't give me much to work with. Like "Wow that B though. More like E flat, am I right, single ladies?" doesn't quite zing. I also am not comfortable with roasting a song about someone's dead grandma. Innuwho. That's that. Gonna go. Many blessinz.
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