One Direction - Up All Night (An Album Review)

What do you get when you take Justin Bieber add an extra dose of talent, and a British/Irish accent, then times him by 5?  That my friends, is UK Sensation: One Direction.   Their first album Up All Night is being released in North America today (March 13th, 2012), and there's a ton of buzz around it.

(See what I mean about the Biebs thing? Although, second from the left looks like a Jonas Brother who got lost in England - those eyebrows, they're everywhere!)

So I've revved up my iTunes and am going to scroll through this album track by track.  Starting of course, at the top:

#1. What Makes You Beautiful 

It starts off with what sounds like "Summer Nights" from Grease.  Which is to say, it's instantly catchy.   Whoever cooked these guys up got "boy band" just right.  It's chorus is infectious:

 Baby you light up my world like nobody else
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed
But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell
You don't know
Oh Oh
You don't know you're beautiful  If only you saw what I can see

You'll understand why I want you so desperately
Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe
You don't know
Oh oh
You don't know you're beautiful
Oh oh
That what makes you beautiful

Deep?  Not exactly, but charming nonetheless.   In a word, it's adorable.  You can't help but sway along.   This is clearly the reason it's not only track 1 on the album, but also their lead single.  It's been out for quite a while in the UK, but only a month or two here in Canada.  Even still, this group sold out concerts on this side of the pond in mere minutes.  Who says the X Factor can't give you fame?  Simon Cowell obviously saw the marketability of this group and has run with it ever since.  It should also be noted that this song was produced by the same people who brought us Brit Brit's Baby One More Time. There's officially no way I could have hated it.  


#2. Gotta Be You

 Who's ready for a ballad?  Ready or not here it comes!  The first thing I noticed is the epic strings in this song.   They're a perfect lead up to the pop sounds that come in for the chorus, which is unfortunately a bit whiny.  The voices blend well, yet the whine is distracting.  Good thing this was the second single, it's hook doesn't catch you as easily as track 1.   It is easy to sing along though, so I'm sure the teens and teeny bopper wannabes alike are all a-twitter about it.     The thing that caught me up about this song, is it seems like a squeakier, more pop sounding version of Marianas Trench's Beside You.  Though that may just be the Vancouver in me.  Not a bad song overall, but it wouldn't be my first pick for a listen.


#3. One Thing

(Side Note:  The great thing about an album being released in the UK before North America is the fact that there's already a few vids on youtube.  So handy.)

There's that catchy guitar again.  Not exactly the same as in What Makes You Beautiful, but it's got a similar vibe.  Once the song starts up, you can tell it's different. Through the first few tracks in this album, you can tell that all the boys can sing, a welcome change from most boy bands we know and love.   The thing I really enjoyed about this song in particular is the Backstreet of it.   Being a 90s kid, this totally could've been a Backstreet Boys tune.  The voice blend, the tune, the song in general screams BSB and I love it. 


#4. More Than This

 
This is a beautifully told version of a classic tale.   The girl he (they?) long for is in the arms of another.  The falsettos in the beginning of the song have great vibrato.  I enjoy the way the voices are separate to begin with, then come together, then separate again to highlight different sounds.  This brings the song an interesting dynamic that solo artists would need to collaborate for.  The emphasis is in all the right places highlighted by the different voices (and in some cases, accents).   Lyrically it's something that anyone who's got a crush or has lost a significant other to someone else can relate to.    It's a song about longing that any pop junkie will long to listen to on repeat.


#5. Up All Night

Time to kick it back up!  The infectious drum beat is back and "Katy Perry's on replay", so it's time to get hooked by pop again!     I guarantee this will be a single at some point.   Funny that they should mention her, because this to me, is a PG version of Katy Perry's Last Friday Night.  All it's missing is a Kenny G sax solo.  Other than that it's catchy, it's got the breakdown (complete with a chant: "Up all night, up all night"), and a few vocal runs to remind you these guys can sing.   I'm also expecting Glee to cover this at some point because I am imagining Blaine singing this as I listen to it.   I have a chronic case of head bobbing and it ain't goin' nowhere.


#6. I Wish

 All I can say about this, is the songwriters for this group have complicated love lives.  That aside, this is another catchy little ditty about longing and heart break.   Basically, the poor boys are pouring their hearts out about how they missed their chance with a girl, and they wish they hadn't.  Sad as the message is, you still want to sing along and dance.   That balance leads me to believe this album is golden so far.  Pop is popular for a reason, and this is ready for consumption, Tay-Swift style.


#7. Tell Me A Lie

 My first thought: This sounds angsty enough to be a Kelly Clarkson Song.  My internet search result: Kelly Clarkson wrote this song.  It all makes sense to me now.  As a self-proclaimed Clarkson fan,  I immediately started jamming before I'd finished my googling.      I could sit here and point out all the similarities to a Kelly Clarkson song, but one of the boys does enough belting that I probably don't need to.  The tune is pure pop, with a little bit of a pop-rock sound thanks to the guitars.  Again,  if this hit the radio airwaves, it would get played on repeatpeatpeatpeatpeat.


#8. Taken

 You always want what you can't have, and for some reason that's always fodder for a pop song.  Boom! Here's 1D's version of that.  Taken.  I'm giving Dr. Seuss props to the songwriters for rhyming "Breakin'" with "Taken".  If only there accents didn't ruin the rhyme the second time around, oh well, it's still dreamy sounding.   The chorus looks like this:

Who do you think you are
Who do you think I am
You only loved to see me breaking
You only want me cause I'm taken
You don't really want my heart
No, you just like to know you can
Still be the one who gets it breaking
You only want me when i'm taken

It's got a simple song structure, it's a simple song, and it works.


#9. I Want

 What a needy broad.  Always wanting things.  The issue of the "High Maintenance Woman" is brought to light here.  The piano has me hooked in, and it's got a wicked vibe that's almost edging on dark, but still pop star clean like Lindsay Lohan when a judge is watching.   The tune has got a great beat and again is highlighting a different end of the vocal spectrum.  I imagined this on Broadway with some angry walk-snapping followed by angry dancing in the instrumental part.   If I could dance, I would choreograph it and write it in to a show.  I listened to this song about 5 times before moving on, it's an entertaining dance in my head.  Feel free to imagine your own.


#10. Everything About You

Pop personified.  This song is repetitive, it rhymes, and it's redundant (kind of like this sentence).  That being said, it's another one of those "guilty pleasure" songs that you will find yourself singing along in the car to, whether you wanted to or not.  It's everything about you, you, you.   People will eat it up, myself included.


#11.  Same Mistakes

The picture on these last few tracks is becoming nauseating with it's joy, and it doesn't really match this next song.  Making the same mistakes over and over is a depressing, yet somewhat hopeful affair.  The tune in this song is a played down self-esteem-seminar backtrack. For some reason, this works for this track.   This was one of my least favourite songs on this "disc".  It feels bland and predictable, even more-so than your typical boy band ballad.  

#12. Save You Tonight

All that you want's under your nose.  Luckily, there's a song to tell you about it.    Hold on, there's a rhythmic chorus above to tell you about it.   More pop gold, it even mentions superman.     At this point in the album it's blending with some of the other tracks a bit, but it still stands on it's own in certain parts.  The chorus has a different vibe than the other tracks and this one's got the dance beat perfected (at least if you dance like Napoleon Dynamite).   It's something I can imagine will be bassed up, remixed and thrown on in a club that caters to a younger crowd.   Catchy, Catchy Ear Candy.


#13. Stole My Heart

We've reached our final song.  You know that dancey, club song I was imagining?  I found it.  So throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em like ya just don't care!  Okay, it's definitely not hiphop, but it's got an intense quick beat that I can hear coming from a club or some eurotrash's neoned up car.   Plus, it talks about love at first sight.  $$$ in the bank.   Dance monkeys, dance!


Alright, that's enough perky white kid music for this perky white girl.  Will I listen to this album again?  Absolutely.  It's a delectable pop morsel, primed for North American consumption.  It's proven itself as a contender in the UK, hitting number two and staying there for a good run. It was the fastest selling debut album on the UK Albums Chart in 2011, and I'm sure it will catch on quick here.  I've already been getting tons of requests for What Makes You Beautiful  from a variety of pop lovers at the radio station I work for.   With a few hits in their homeland, we'll just have to wait and see if One Direction falls in to the One-Hit Wonder or Superstar category on this side of the world.