Made in the AM is One Direction’s fifth—and perhaps final—album. It’s their last before they go on a break, and who knows if they’ll ever come back.
On one hand, it’s a good album for them to go out on. It showcases their maturity, it’s chock-full of songs that sound like oldies from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, and it highlights their vocals well.
On the other hand, it’s overloaded with slower songs and gets monotonous at times, and only a few really stick out on a first listen. Most of them have an airy sort of far-away feel, which is intriguing on a few songs, but feels boring on too many others.
Individually, the majority of the songs are great, but when put together into an album it starts to drag on midway through.
Over the past five years, One Direction has grown up, and they’ve done it well. Each of their albums—until this one—has been a giant leap forward. With MITAM, they feel stagnant.
Their vocals are impressive as always, and they hold up remarkably well despite the departure of Zayn Malik, but the increased vocal load on the band’s arguably weakest singer, Louis Tomlinson, sometimes falls flat, and his attempts at Malik-esque high notes don’t even come close. Harry Styles and Liam Payne both fare much better at the high notes that were Malik’s signature.
There are too many slower songs on this album, and they start to blur together. Album opener “Hey Angel” is a weak song to start the album with. It’s too slow to get anyone pumped, and the lyrics are embarrassingly simple.
The slower songs that succeed in standing out on this album are the Taylor Swift-inspired “Perfect,” feel-good serenade “Infinity,” tender and piano-centric “If I Could Fly,” and the adorable song that is the stripped-down “I Want To Write You A Song.”
“End of the Day” is strange because it sounds like two different songs smashed together, and not in a good way. The chorus sounds nothing like the verses to the point where it’s jarring and distracting, and makes the whole song a confusing experience.
The few upbeat songs, including the Beatles-esque “Olivia,” and the album’s lead single “Drag Me Down,” are energetic enough to break some of the album’s monotony. They shine through some of the relentless ballad-y sadness that permeates the album.
Bonus track “Temporary Fix” is another upbeat one that would’ve fared better on the standard edition of the album, if only to give listeners some energy before they moved on to the next slog of ballads.
“Never Enough” is another upbeat, loud one, and it’s so weird that if the previous ballads had succeeded in putting you to sleep, the opening grunting of “Never Enough” will wake you up. Yes—Grunting. It’s such a weird song, and it’s clearly Niall Horan’s brainchild, since the weird songs are always his manic creations. It’s a mishmash of so many weird elements, from the grunting to the weird electronic feel on the chorus. It’s hard to describe it as anything other than weird, but it sort of manages to work.
“History” is a great closer for them—it’s like a campfire song, and it’s a goodbye to their fans. It sounds like a reassurance that for 1D, this isn’t the end. It’s a groovy, optimistic song, and a great closer.
All in all, Made in the AM isn’t a bad album. It just isn’t a particularly memorable one.
