As an ex pseudo-hipster, I felt a bit of shame when I found myself on Spotify listening to One Direction’s new album Take Me Home: The Yearbook Edition.
Prior to listening to the album, I was expecting to write an album review ripping on mainstream pop, but as I went along the entire 17 tracks, I found myself thinking, hey, this is… this is okay.
My strange acceptance was quite a blow to my nonexistent music cred, but it did not mean I was ready to love them either.
I first heard about the release of the UK boy band’s sophomore album through the “twittersphere”. I thought One Direction was beginning to drop off the face of the earth over the summer, but the tweets about the new album were bursting with excitement, telling me something different.
When I played the first track “Live While We’re Young”, I was predictably met with an extremely poppy tune and a clichéd, overused theme. They might as well have replaced all the lyrics with “YOLO” repeating throughout the song because that would have been just as effective. “Live While We’re Young” is the “What Makes You Beautiful” of this album, meaning that it will probably be replayed a million times on the radio throughout the coming year.
A nice surprise in the album is the track “Little Things”, a randomly acoustic song in the middle of this jumpy pop fest. However, it does not stray far away from the conveyor belt of sappy love lyrics. “Little Things” is suddenly super sentimental as Louis (I think) affectionately reminds you to not worry about your thighs or your other random body insecurities. Gee, thanks.
The rest of the album is literally (not literally) the same song over and over again. I can’t even tell the difference between “Heart Attack” and “Back For You”. They are essentially the same song about being crazy for some girl paired with a generic beat in the back. I consider it an accomplishment that I somehow managed to listen to this entire incredibly repetitive album in one sitting.
So I’m not a fan of One Direction, or teeny bopper bands for that matter. But it doesn’t mean I think their songs are all that bad. Yes, they are lacking in originality, but the songs are fun and upbeat – and that is what they are meant to be. This processed pop works because the audience One Direction gears towards is unfortunately the mindless pre-teens who are only listening to their music to get in their pants.
At the end of it all, this album is ridiculously catchy. And despite the fact that I had to turn on the private session on Spotify when listening to this album, I believe that sometimes, everyone needs a little stupid pop therapy.
