It begins with Billy Joel-esque piano intro before the stadium-sized beats and synths kick in. There should be a law against creating a song so infuriatingly catchy.
As it stands, it makes even Westlife sound interestingĪ domestic pop song. They should have just given it to Gary Barlow.
It is hard to imagine that this insipid ballad took 10 people to write. The album’s second single and easily one of the album’s worst tracks. Expect the Sevens Stadium stage to be moodily lit when the boys deliver it. Horran delivers a sweet falsetto hook here and there is a new hint of broodiness, too. That funk-rock classic remains safe but there is a lot going on for this one. “Steal My Girl” begins with a piano riff clearly inspired by, if not outright stolen from, Journey’s power ballad standard “Faithfully.” It’s just the beginning: “Stockholm Syndrome” borrows the groove and a little bit of the chorus melody from Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Fireproof” takes its bass lead from Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” and most improbably of all, “Girl Almighty” apes the chunk-ka-chunk shuffle and vocal/guitar call-and-response chorus of Paul Simon’s “The Obvious Child.” You could descend into madness trying to pinpoint what decades-old songs all of the riffs and rhythms of this LP remind you of.Ĭome on, you must have had the (horrifying) thought that 1D took on The Stone Roses, didn’t you? Don’t worry. Songs like lead single “Steal My Girl” and the dramatic “Fool’s Gold” have an expert sense of pace and scale, building from relatively quiet openings to giant, gorgeous climaxes, and even less ambitious songs like “Fireproof” and “18” feel designed to reach the back corners of the biggest venues on the planet. The band’s new record, simply titled Four, continues that evolution: its members are more involved in the composition of their material than ever, and the album as a whole takes another step towards the stadium-sized rock first suggested by Midnight Memories.