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deadcactuswalking · 4 months

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 13/01/2023 (Liam Gallagher/John Squire, Lewis Capaldi, Bring Me the Horizon)

Welp, Noah Kahan’s back at #1 with “Stick Season” for a second consecutive week - kinda surprised this is the hit song we start off the year with but alas, welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

Now this is the kind of balls-to-the-wall week I expect from early January, and we’ll get to that, but as always, we start with our notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75 after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we say farewell to “ten” by Fred again.. and Jozzy, “Take on Me” by a-ha, “(It Goes Like) Nanana” by Peggy Gou, “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” by Whitney Houston, “Giving Me” by Jazzy, “Miracle” by Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding, "Escapism." by RAYE featuring 070 Shake and "As it Was" by Harry Styles.

Now as for songs still showing up on the charts, we have our notable gains, and given January actually has a lot of stuff going on pop music wise, I’m not entirely sure how well these will maintain their momentum but regardless, we do see boosts for… “When We Were Young (The Logical Song)” by David Guetta and Kim Petras at #53, “Riptide” by Vance Joy at #49 - oh, this is dire. Noah Kahan’s good, sure, but it really does not mean we need to stomp and holler our way back to 2014. Sigh, elsewhere, at least we have “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli at #41, but also “Toxic” by Songer at #39 - God, let’s not do this, please - “Perfect (Exceeder)” by Mason and Princess Superstar at #26, “Feather” by Sabrina Carpenter at #19, “Popular” by The Weeknd, Playboi Carti and Madonna getting a second wind at #11 and finally, Teddy Swims with his first top 10 as “Lose Control” rises to #6, not really complaining about that one.

In addition, we see another film-related return with Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” finding use in this romcom Anyone but You which no, I haven’t watched and unlike Saltburn, probably won’t. Regardless, the song debuted and peaked at #6 in 2004 the week that “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid 20 debuted at the top of the charts, and it’s now back at #24. I’m a lot less fond of this one, but it’s mostly fine, I’m more exhausted by how 2024 seems to be going even harder in just reviving catalogue songs instead of having new hits.

As for our top five, it seems pretty standard with “greedy” by Tate McRae at #5, “Prada” by casso, RAYE and D-Block Europe at #4 and “Lovin’ on Me” at #3, but then we have Sophie Ellis-Bextor reaching the same peak she reached back at release with “Murder on the Dancefloor” at #2. I don’t really get why the scene in the film, which whilst memorable, is hardly a worthwhile payoff to that shitfest, but I digress, is what propelled this but I almost think it was just sitting there, ready for any excuse to start skirting up the Spotify charts. Oh, and Noah Kahan’s at #1, of course, let’s check out what’s new, because there’s actually more here than last week… and it’s a bit more interesting… Hell, it’s actually pretty incomprehensible this week, so let’s just find some kind of through line, and we start with a certainty that is oddly comforting nowadays…

New Arrivals

#72 - “Skims” - D-Block Europe

Produced by THESCAM and Hash-K

Ah, my good old friends Young Adz and Dirtbike Lb. It’s even produced by… “THESCAM”, wow, I guess it says gullible on the ceiling of your mansion, guys. They released a mixtape or album or whatever and this is a single from it - yes, we’re getting back to back DBE weeks - and it’s just terrible as you’d expect. The tuned-out piano is almost plugg-esque, and surprisingly enough, Dirtbike Lb handles much of this, talking about women mostly as well as a lot of flexing, and whilst he can’t make a catchy hook to save his life, I like Dirtbike’s voice here, he sounds more… stable than usual, and the drums actually hit fairly hard through the whole song. On an objective level, if there is one, this is one of their most competent lead singles until Young Adz comes in with “Presidential, Emmanuel Macron”. That’s the French President. That’s just the French President, you can’t just say the French President. That’s not a bar. He’s mixed too loud and brags about paying with crypto and giving a girl so much money that she… can’t tax evade anymore. Sure. Good to have you back, guys.

#71 - “Nothing Matters” - The Last Dinner Party

Produced by James Ellis Ford

Alright, we have our first of many sleeper hits to debut this week, but this is actually one of the newer ones, being released just early last year. This is the debut single for all-female indie rock band The Last Dinner Party, hailing from London and getting James Ellis Ford, who’s produced for a who’s who of British alternative acts and Kylie Minogue, to work on their debut album coming out in February. We start with an organ, which is almost ironically religious for this kind of song, as lead singer Abigail Morris, through her very British delivery, pretty much condemns herself prematurely for what she’s about to say, “I have my sentence now”, it seems final and self-loathing for what is pretty much a newfound love song, where her partner is struggling to move on but it’s a complete rush for Morris, who seems to hold a lot of power. They can hold her like they held their last girlfriend, but what she’s going to do is fuck you so good that none of that matters, and yeah, this is brilliant. There’s such a bending character to Morris’ vocals, I love the flailing yacht rock guitars in the verses that end up picking up into an incredibly catchy bass groove peppered by the claps in the basic yet anthemic chorus that doesn’t change because, well, it doesn’t change like much will change at this point. To her, there’s not a third person that matters, or at least there’s not a third opinion she values more than getting off on their misunderstanding, and then that staccato bridge explodes into a great squealing guitar solo that ends up seamlessly mirroring the plastic horns that appear in the back of the - admittedly maybe a bit too compressed - mix for that final chorus, where we get a switch up in the rhythm and some impressive vocal runs from Morris.

#59 - “A Cure for Minds Overall” - Lewis Capaldi

Produced by TMS

…Can I use my free Get Out of Reviewing a Lewis Capaldi Song card? Oh, there are two Lewis Capaldi songs both from his deluxe edition? Sigh… well, I guess I’ll use these for another time. Well, for now, I can say that’s an ugly Britpop guitar tone that easily sounds like it could be a MIDI guitar just playing the same chord again and again, and like all of the songs from this album, Capaldi’s voice is mixed bizarrely, and really close, which could help the song’s intimacy, and mostly does, especially given it’s just as self-loathing and wordy as the others, and it goes for the same explosion of strings and belting as the others for the chorus… but God, it’s so tedious. I actually don’t mind the strings, the lyrics are pretty great, but this mix is such a blur of nothingness and the guitar just doesn’t stop. There are supposedly drums in this but they’re so unimpactful and shrouded by the terrible blending of the strings that it just sounds like a guy arguing with clouds and losing… which may actually be what he’s going for, in all honesty. I suppose it works?

#52 - “Ophelia” - The Lumineers

Produced by Simone Felice

…Why? Okay, so this is a sleeper hit from folk rock group The Lumineers and like I said, we’re stomp and hollering our way back to the days of “Ho Hey” as somehow, “Ophelia”, despite releasing in 2015 and being a minor hit Stateside, had never crossed over to the UK. This is really not my thing, even if I know that it’s really not a bad song. The reverb envelops the mix in a cinematic if slightly cheap, commercial-sounding way, and Wesley Schultz is far from a bad singer, his feature on my favourite song of last year kind of proved that I like his voice way more than I should. The jaunty hook is catchy if a tad unmemorable, carried by the gimmicky piano frolick that I’ve never liked, and you can hear he’s straining a bit in the third verse, out of a slight frustration but not a specific one. This song has always felt like vague-posting about a relationship to me and not in a very effective way because there’s little poetic about this song. I’m sorry, I don’t dislike these guys, I’m just not big on this one at all. I get why it’s going to probably be a hit now, I’m not really happy about it.

#37 - “Strangers” - Lewis Capaldi

Produced by The Monsters & Strangerz and Michael Pollack

Okay, our second effort from Mr. Capaldi here… he references “Wonderwall” within 10 seconds, and that’s not the last time we’ll be talking about Oasis, it’s one of those weeks. Anyway, this is just awkward: Lewis isn’t really fit for the fast-paced melody he uses given his frail, froggy voice, and there’s not much to cover that up given the minimal piano and strings backing. I genuinely think this could be a great song if just put against some real rock guitar and groove, it has an insanely catchy lead melody in the chorus that would rip in a pop rock context, but here we just have adult contemporary mush about a breakup… has this guy had 47 breakups or is he just talking about the same one each time? I mean, I guess it’s better than the last one because the mix sounds slightly more professional, but there’s not exactly much to latch onto here either.

#27 - “Practice” - Drake

Produced by 40 and Drake

This is a deep cut from 2011’s Take Care. What the Hell is going on?! To be fair, it’s still Drake, but it’s not even a song he’s pushing or got any kind of boost outside of a TikTok trend and, well, it fits the climate of pop music right now at least, since it samples the bounce classic “Back that Azz Up” by JUVENILE featuring Mannie Fresh, who also produced one of the most recognisable beats of all time, and a young Lil Wayne on the bridge. The Weeknd says he wrote the hook but it’s word for word from “Back that Azz Up” so not really sure what he’s going on about there. The explicit yet undeniable club jam actually never charted in the UK, but hey, now we have Drake singing it to yet another stripper he’s in love with. As for that version, I’ve never been a fan of this era of Drake, where he takes himself uber-seriously, can barely sing and is pathetic in a murkier way that just bothers me more than it allows me to laugh at him, especially when he just… recites the chorus to “Back that Azz Up” over a cloudy alternative R&B beat, and a lot of Juvie’s first for that matter. Outside of the drums, which sound straight from 2011, this isn’t exactly a beat too far from what Drake is putting out right now - he’d probably add a female vocal sample and 21 Savage guest verse if he were to make it today - so I suppose I guess why it’s here, but I can get this vibe done much more compellingly from early Weeknd, I see little value in this, or really the album as a whole in 2024, other than constructing the guy’s wounded armour in the public eye. I do hear people say they want the old Drake, so I guess the fans just put their streams where their mouths were.

#21 - “Kool-Aid” - Bring Me the Horizon

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes and Dan Lancaster

This cover art looks like an edgy AI prompt for “Kool-Aid Man digital art”. The Horizon boys have released many a single from this upcoming album, and I’m actually less excited with each one I hear, so I’m cautious here, especially given… well, it’s called “Kool-Aid”. Welp, is this an “Oh Yeah!” moment? No, not at all. This is an “Oh no” at best, and maybe that’s giving it too much credit. I do like the build-up with the shuttering synths and two-clap drop in the intro, but the rest of the song spends so much of its runtime in muddy breakdown mode that it just fails to function in any other way, despite going for screaming breakdowns afterwards as if the song had any momentum in the first place, with Oli Sykes going on about drinking the Kool-Aid and, man, I don’t think the social commentary is that interesting or up to date, and the violent relationship analogies aren’t nearly as transgressive as he thinks they are. The haunting backing vocals from Lucy Landry in the bridge are pretty sick, but they once again find themselves in a song that REALLY wants you to convince you on something, but never really tells you what that something is. They go all out with every Bring Me the Horizon trick in the book for the final chorus and it just seems desperate. I’ll pass on this, I hope there’s more to the deep cuts.

#16 - “Just Another Rainbow” - Liam Gallagher and John Squire

Produced by Greg Kurstin

This was headed for #1 on Sunday, really. Now at a much more reasonable spot but still higher than Liam Gallagher should be in 2024, this is the lead single from a collaborative album between Mr. Gallagher and John Squire, who used to be the guitarist for The Stone Roses, an influential and for what they were, incredibly popular rock band from the Madchester scene in the late 80s and early 90s. They actually released two top 40 comeback singles in 2016, to which Squire contributed, but have otherwise been largely inactive, with this being his first top 40 hit to his own name, with Squire making a guest appearance at Gallagher’s recent Knebworth performances in tribute to him guest starring at Oasis’ classic 1996 concert there, which I guess rekindled something in the duo. Is this slice of 90s alt-rock nostalgia going to be any good? You know what? Probably not, but on this week I’ll take it. Liam’s voice is still grating but that psychedelic guitar lick is pretty washed-out and cool, and I think the way the mirroring bass is mixed against it makes it sound pretty interesting instrumentally. It sounds lost and uncertain, finding itself only when the drums come in and it turns into a bit of a bluesy rocker that is just solid. There’s little to complain about other than Liam’s voice just being an acquired taste, as the song just slides itself to and fro, with some lyrics where he literally just lists the colours of the rainbow at some point, it’s kind of silly. I don’t see this lasting even a second week and it’s of course not the best of the rock songs of this week, even if it has the coolest solo of all of them: it feels really dynamic and kind of goes on forever in a soaring linger. If anything is proven by this song, I mean, John Squire still has it after all those years just painting away. That’s good to know.

Conclusion

Best of the Week should be pretty obvious, it’s going to The Last Dinner Party for “Nothing Matters”, which is actually fantastic and almost shocked me since I don’t expect much to stand out from the charting remains of indie landfill. Speaking of, I mean I guess it’s typical that another rock song gets the Honourable Mention, but no one was really competing with “Just Another Rainbow” by Liam Gallagher and John Squire, since the rest of this week really was kind of garbage. I actually think Bring Me the Horizon, who I do like around half of the time, snab Worst of the Week for “Kool-Aid”, which I feel second-hand embarrassment for. The Dishonourable Mention… give it to Lewis Capaldi. Moreso for the first one, but it’s not like “Strangers” is saving that sinking ship. As for what’s on the horizon, no pun intended, we’ll probably Ari and Lil Nas X playing an incredibly unbalanced game of tug-of-war for the #1. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next week!

#uk singles chart #pop music #song review #liam gallagher #john squire #lewis capaldi #bring me the horizon #drake #d block europe #lumineers #last dinner party

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struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor · 6 months

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ARMY is doing to SNTY what they did to LGO with Dynamite : they are pushing Seven for records and for the grammys. I'm so over it. Has the fandom changed this much after 2020 or was it never about the music ? SNTY is the title track and the performance is so much better and obviously meant to make a statement of what a showman he is. But no, having records to rub in other fandoms noses in the priority. He could go for n1 on both single and album charts, but it's not a given because of the current competition, so his "fans" prefer the safe road and push Seven. I really don't think that's what he wants. It will look like a one hit wonder and not gaining the super pop star status he's going for, even if he's in the top 5, because he called to go higher and no, Seven will be the highest point.

Is that what's happening? Seven's blocking SNTY on the charts, as it happened with 3D, but isn't it natural? It's a legitimately popular song. Even if Armys prioritize SNTY, they can't help it that Seven has a much bigger reach and is being streamed by locals and casual fans. There wasn't a huge difference in streams between Seven and SNTY, but between fans streaming Golden - which includes both versions of Seven, being counted as one - and Seven being a GP hit, it makes full sense that it would block SNTY.

Imo, when 3D came out, it was obvious it was never going to come close to touching Seven, so I think they did well in supporting Seven because Jungkook is able to have a real impact in pop through it, and because the fandom vastly prefers Seven so it's not like they're lying by prioritizing it. Also, I'm probably not the only fan who only listens to the alternate version, which really impacts the 3D's performance. I also don't think SNTY is as immediately catchy and GP-friendly as Seven, and the weak MV doesn't help. For example, Miley has better songs than Flowers, Wrecking Ball, We Don't Stop, Party in the USA (Midnight Sky is her best one imo, along with Nothing Breaks Like a Heart), but those songs are a big part of her legacy despite her clear preference for rock and country. She won't be able to top Flowers anytime soon for many reasons, one of which is how viral the song went due to the MV and lyrics referencing her heavily publicized relationship and divorce to Liam. Seven went big for similar reasons - it was Jungkook's first song, so the anticipation was huge, the MV went viral because he played boyfriend, then the explicit version went viral because he talked about "fucking", and his promo photos created a lot of hype for the song because he showed his abs and nipples (his CK campaigns helped too). Fans lusting after Jungkook and being "shocked" by his sexual image is half the reason Seven did this well. It's almost impossible for Jungkook to top that, unless he either releases a really unique and impactful song, or a catchy yet basic song with an explosive MV and a even bolder image change - or if he goes viral for some other reason, like, if he ever reveals that he's dating someone and then drops a love song, you bet that song will be massive.

Also, you're contradicting yourself a bit. If records aren't important, why is it important that SNTY tops the charts? And yes, it was never just about the music. How do you think BTS become so big? Just by Army appreciating the music?

And, please, Jungkook could never be a one hit wonder. Euphoria is the most popular solo BTS song, SWY is massive in SK, L&R did pretty well too, and SNTY will for sure do well. He's also in the biggest group in the world. A one hit wonder is someone that experiences short-lived success. Even if Jungkook never tops Seven, and even as a soloist, he will never be a one hit wonder. His future and legacy are set. There are plenty of successful artists that only had one or two breakout songs, and Jungkook's solo career has only just started... Besides, we know with Jungkook and BTS there's so much more to it than music. The industry is against them in many ways, so even an amazing song loved by fans and SEA might not do well in the US unless it's in English and promoted right.

Lastly, SNTY is the best example in Golden of Jungkook's vocal and performance prowess, but Seven suits his image, personality, and personal tastes better imo. Jungkook immediately loved Seven but was hesitant about SNTY.

#ask #bts #jungkook #golden #text

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walker-extended-universe · 8 months

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You're Gonna Go Far Kid

Relationship(s): August Walker/Sadie Yoo

Tags/Warnings: Rockstar AU, Interviews, Television, Secret Relationships, Introspection

Summary: August waits in the wings while Sadie gives her first TV interview

Written for AU-gust Day 25: Rockstar AU

Taglist (if you would like to be added, please let me know!): @theladywyn, @ihavepointysticks, @klaatu51, @itsjessiegirl1, @neptunium134

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“Welcome back to the Morning Review. Please give a warm welcome to our new guest: Sadie Yoo!”

Sadie stepped out from behind the curtain, waving to the crowd as she crossed the stage to sit next to the talk show host’s desk. August watched from behind the scenes, a proud smile on his face.

Sadie’s career had really been taking off lately thanks to a few recent hit singles. She’d already had a community of fans on the indie country scene but thanks to the remake of “You’ll Have to Catch Me First” and the release of other songs including “Daddy Was A Bank Robber” and “Goodby Mama”, she’d been receiving very tempting offers from big record labels. She’d finally picked one to go with, which was why she was doing this interview. It was the big announcement of her new deal and her first concert tour.

August glanced away from the stage when he heard his uncle’s voice pitch up in volume. “That is not what she signed up for- and I know exactly what she signed up for. Her contract clearly states control over her costumes for the tour and those designs you emailed this morning are not from her list of picks. Care to explain that to me?”

August smiled and turned his attention back to the interview. Uncle Liam had offered to be Sadie’s representation until she got a real agent and he’d taken to the role like a duck to water. He’d taken temporary leave from the horse rescue to help with Sadie’s tour. August did feel a little bad about poaching him but Stella seemed to have things under control with a little help from their grandparents.

Besides, it was no one’s fault that August’s puppy eyes and Sadie’s pout were a deadly combination.

“It is such a pleasure to have you on the show, Sadie. And it sure wasn’t easy getting you on the schedule. Talking to your agent, it seemed like there was a lot of stiff competition for your time.”

Sadie smirked. “Well, what can I say? You aren’t the only ones trying to make a few bucks off me.”

August chuckled. That biting humor was part of how Sadie got big in the first place. A video of her improving a song about a patron at the Side Step that wasn’t taking “No” for an answer from her or any of the other women went viral on TikTok and they’d been lucky to catch it early and link it back to Sadie’s account. From there, people found her music and her fanbase grew exponentially.

“Haha, there’s that trademark sass. You don’t exactly fit the mold with that attitude- not in your genre of music. Most country singers go the Southern Hospitality route.”

Sadie shrugged. “Well, I’m not like most country singers. I mean, I’m half Asian, I actually speak a little of my native tongue, I don’t wear flashy cowboy boots just for show, and my music is about actual struggles faced by me and other Americans and not just licking Lady Liberty’s boots like every other country singer since 2005.”

“I can’t argue with that. And that’s what makes your music resonate with people. I mean, your music is catchy, sure, but your lyrics have real soul in them. And that’s a rarity in this day and age.”

“You bet it is. And I take pride in that. It’s like- If I’m going to sing something, it’s going to be real. I don’t want to have to worry about an AI chatbot replacing my songwriter in five years.”

“Your songwriter? I thought you wrote all your songs.”

“I do,” Sadie said. “But I don’t do it alone. I couldn’t. If I just wrote down whatever was on my mind and tried to turn it into a song, it’d just… It’d be too raw. It wouldn’t sound good. And, okay, yeah, I went viral because of an improv song but, 1) We’ve all felt that way about a creep so obviously people connected to it, and 2) that was the exception, not the rule. I’m not ashamed to say I have someone help me make the final product of my songs. I need someone to bounce lyrics off of and give me new ideas or tell me when mine are stupid. “Daddy Was A Bank Robber” wouldn’t be the same if it’d just been me writing it.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a musical genius on your team.”

Sadie laughed. “Oh, god, don’t let him hear you say that. He’ll never let it go.”

“Oh, it’s a ‘he’?”

“Oh, don’t do that,” Sadie groaned. “Yes, I’m a woman that works with men. It’s a male dominated industry, how can I not be! It’s the 21st century, people! Can we quit assuming that every man and woman that work in close proximity are a bad accident away from kissing?!”

August winced. And that was why he was backstage instead of up there with her. Not that many people wanted to interview a songwriter, but still. They were more co-artists than anything else and he’d played onstage with her on multiple occasions. Sadie had initially wanted them to be a double-act. They were partners in music and in life. But the labels had just wanted Sadie and Liam had plenty of examples of romantic musical duos that ended up falling apart because of fan behavior. So, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, Sadie was single and August was just a part of the team. He was lucky he’d gotten a backstage pass, honestly.

“Honestly, though,” Sadie said, bringing the interview back on track, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without my team. I know it’s just me on stage and it’s my name on the merch and all that but…. It’s not just me. It’s my agent, my writer, my family…. I’m here because of them. And I’m taking them with me on my nation-wide tour this summer!”

August smiled when the studio audience cheered. She was so good at that; he honestly couldn’t be prouder of her.

#walker #walker fic #walker fanfic #au #rockstar au #august/sadie #my writing #my fic

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nwdsc · 2 years

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(▶︎ Imagine I'm Hoping | Paddy Hannaから)

Imagine I'm Hoping by Paddy Hanna

There are few artists who could count Burt Bacharach and Fontaines DC amongst their fans but Paddy is one of them. The Dubliner has long eschewed passing fads in favour of timeless melodies and fine songwriting, leading indie music bible The Quietus to call him “a songwriter with a propensity for wildly infectious hooks and choruses that burrow into your brain with no intention of leaving.” One thing is for sure, since 2014’s debut Leafy Stiletto, 2018’s Frankly, I Mutuate, and 2020’s The Hill, Paddy has been basking in the light of something quite pure, and perhaps unexpected from someone who has previously been influenced by darker subject matter��love. “Everything about this new record is borne out of love, which is the first time I can say that,” he says. “During the pandemic, I got engaged and married. The album was recorded while there was a baby in my wife’s belly. Everyone who worked on the album, I have the greatest affection for. It was just a lovely experience. It was love on top of love. The album, thematically, is about letting go of things.” Album opener ‘Look For Tomorrow,’ with its bright strums of guitar and Paddy’s impressive falsetto, certainly embodies this sentiment of moving on from the past. The song ends on a bombastic note, buoyed by brass fanfare; it’s a watershed moment to prepare us for the rest of Imagine I’m Hoping. ‘A Dancer’ follows with indie fervour: furiously cascading piano, sleigh bells on the chorus, and an ebullience that propels you to the dancefloor. Paddy’s delivery is whisper-soft on the classic pop tune ‘New York Sidewalk,’ made with the help of frequent collaborator Daniel Fox (Gilla Band). “The whole crux of ‘New York Sidewalk’ is that things in life that happen that can be bad can become funny in later life, you know,” he explains. “So, like, going to New York and trying to make a name for yourself out there, but instead making a tit out of yourself. But then the song ends looking back in a bit of a Hemingway situation, where you’re telling the story to someone and it’s like ‘It made you laugh, saw you smiling, that’ll do.’ See what I mean? It’s about not being a victim to the past anymore.” Despite Paddy’s more summery sound on Imagine I’m Hoping, he is still deeply influenced by horror movies and all things macabre. “When people think of music inspired by horror they think of White Zombie or something like that,” Hanna says. “Or a music video where a shaky camera goes down a corridor and zooms in on a doll with no eyes—it’s so cheesy. Most of the best horror soundtracks are, like, Rosemary’s Baby or Enninio Morricone on The Thing; the most terrifying soundtracks are often the prettiest. It’s all about contrast.” The record as a whole is cinematic; ‘Say Goodbye’ and ‘Yellow Buffalo’ would be right at home in a modern Western, thrumming with harmonica and rattling, Americana-inspired percussion. The jazzy ‘Symphony Bacalao’ is positively vaudevillian, and Paddy shows off his unexpected sense of humour here, declaring, “Oh, what a shit show!” Rollicking single ‘Yoko Ono’ is accompanied by an appropriately colourful and bizarre music video featuring a surreal talent show and Paddy himself, of course. Directed and edited by Alex Lynch (who’s previously worked on videos for SOAK, Irish Women in Harmony, and more) and Liam Farrell, the video proves just as playful as the song itself. Paddy says: "I feel the directors and crew captured the fear, anxiety and joyful absurdity of a performer's life. Perhaps the most concerning part is that despite the video's peculiarities, it mirrors reality to an almost uncomfortable degree." “The song started as an improvised rap about Mike love from The Beach Boys, and over time it mutated into a cheerful bop about an identity crisis. There isn’t a day where I don’t feel like an imposter, so why not write a catchy tune about it,” he shares. The much-anticipated follow-up to 2020’s The Hill, this new record has already gained early acclaim with lead single ‘New York Sidewalk’ proving one jangly, jovial chord at a time that it is possible to climb the radio charts with a song that as far from generic as they come. Nialler9 wrote that it “bursts with shimmering piano notes, parps of brass and gorgeous backing” and Stereogum speculating that the “wistful, lush song, all plinking piano and cooing background vocals” may be signalling a new direction for Hanna. With a new, more optimistic Paddy Hanna now in the driving seat, 2022 may well be the year that this idiosyncratic underdog rises up to take his rightful place centre-stage. クレジット2022年10月21日リリース

#2210 #RC #****

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existentialmagazine · 2 years

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Review: HOLMES new indie-pop single ‘Love Me Not Him’ bundles vibrant sounds into one two minute journey

Upcoming indie-pop artist HOLMES jumped headfirst into the genre with his debut single 'If It Was Up To Me’ earlier this year, making a real splash as his sound showed at full-force that HOLMES has a real knack to mastering his craft, even in such little time. Followed up by his second single ‘Never Learning’, HOLMES has only continued to pave his way behind names like Circa Waves, Sam Fender and Catfish and the Bottlemen, championing a sound of his own that’s unapologetically bold, vibrant and turns heads with ease. With such a clean and addictive approach to his music, it’s no surprise that his third and newest single ‘Love Me Not Him’ offers just as much of the same loveable tones amidst more heartfelt lyricism - adding just another reason why HOLMES is a name sure to go far if given the chance.

With a thudding, steady beat to lead things in, ‘Love Me Not Him’ sets a catchy tone from the get-go as you’re urged to not just sway along but fully immerse yourself within the experience. Paired with a subtle electric guitar riff in the background and HOLMES distinct, clean vocals atop it all, the verses feel both minimal and even a little melancholic, clearly buried in emotion but kept above surface by an undeniable groove. Beautifully built into an atmospherically bold chorus, ‘Love Me Not Him’ bursts into a colourful explosion of sound as clashing drums simmer, electric guitar reverberates around the chamber of sound and HOLMES confidently commandeers the layers as he offers an emphatically brilliant hook. With all of this to offer, the track even closes with a dramatic bridge absolutely coated in heart-wrenching agony, before fading out at just over two minutes long. Short, sweet, and a little saddened too, ‘Love Me Not Him’ feels like a truly exceptional indie-pop experience that serves to not just mark HOLMES own way in the genre but also offer up an addictively catchy tune with a serious heartache below it all.

Hints of rawness within ‘Love Me Not Him’ leave way for a heartfelt narrative, perhaps inspired by HOLMES own experiences or just based off of others, it certainly holds a lingering resonance of pain in every word. Describing a painful journey through love, ‘Love Me Not Him’ seems to depict the age old tale of unreciprocated feelings but with a twist, as the person the protagonist longs for is already in a relationship with another. As the lyrics desperately try to justify why they should love him instead, there are certain hints of desperation and longing that ring through, with lines like ‘You’ve done well, now it’s time to move onto things that are best for you’ that seem to plead for an explanation as to why they’d waste their time with another when they have so much love to give them instead. Whether they’re happily in a relationship or whether things are crumbling down is never truly made clear, leaving an open-ended interpretation to whether ‘Love Me Not Him’ takes such a stance because they’d appreciate them how they deserve or if they simply burn with jealousy watching them be loved by another. Although there’s a certain confidence that comes with valuing oneself so highly, ‘Love Me Not Him’ also sheds undertones of self-consciousness and insecurity, wishing to be seen and understood by the person they love yet constantly overlooked and reminded they’re not wanted the way they yearn to be. Evidently pained and incredibly real, there’s not a moment that HOLMES doesn’t feel utterly down to earth and relatable within this gripping single, painting a picture we’ve all likely found ourselves within at one point whether we’d like to admit it or not: ‘Love me not him, that’s all I ask of you.’

If ‘Love Me Not Him’ sounds like the indie-pop haze you’ve been dreaming of discovering, you can check it out for yourself here!

Written by: Tatiana Whybrow

Photo Credits: Liam Black

#music #singlereview #HOLMES #indiepop

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dailytomlinson · 4 years

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At the stroke of midnight on January 31st, 2020, the music industry was single-handedly saved by just a young lad from Doncaster. We can all agree, in confidence, that the majority of artists won’t top the charts with their first LP, especially with little to no promo. “Walls” however, debuted at #1 on the worldwide iTunes charts, a feat not many will come by. Judging by its success, we can rightfully assume this album could be rather magical. Just over a month into the decade, I can happily testify that this may be one of the greatest pieces of work we’ll see over the span of the next 10 years. The only record I may allow to top it, will be Tomlinson’s sophomore album, which is fair to speculate will have a little less fan service and show a little more of the grunge britpop rockstar that Louis is dying to showcase.

Oh, this guy’s from One Direction, too. It’s a fact that doesn’t need to be honed in on, but in case you aren’t familiar with his older work, the UK-based band is where he found his origin story. Though hopefully after giving these tracks a listen, we’ll all be able to start celebrating him as the solo artist he was destined to become.

Kill My Mind

You hate me and I want more.

Perhaps I wasn’t alive during majority of the Britpop Movement of the 90s, but I can wholeheartedly say that if you played this opening track for anyone familiar with the genre, they would tell you it would feel right at home as a feature on one of Oasis’ final LPs or as a single brought to us by Blur. However, that is not to say it lacks originality. In fact, far from it. His thick Yorkshire accent demands your attention right off the bat. This song is confident, it’s loud, it’s sexy, it’s everything his loyal fanbase has been patiently waiting to see arise from the musician. It’s a different Tomlinson than the general public may be accustomed to, but it’s a perfect example of an artist finding their authentic self. The electric opener, Kill My Mind gives us a little tease as to what’s to come.

Don’t Let It Break Your Heart

What hurts you is gonna pass and you’ll have learned from it when it comes back.

After careful consideration, this may be the album’s weakest link. It draws on a bit of the pop-influence his previous audiences may be more familiar with. Previously, Louis released a single-edit and a piano version. The one featured on the album, is by far the most well mixed. It’s filled with beautiful harmonies and the layered vocals have a lot of potential. The message of this song is uplifting, about overcoming hardships with grace and allowing yourself to grow from them — A theme not uncommon in Louis’ writing or general life philosophy. Always the lyricist, coming from him, this message works and it works beautifully into the melodies of the song. My main issue comes down to production. The background vocals are choppy and make the general feeling of the song a little cheesy. Ultimately, it all just sounds forced. I can say however, experiencing this song live is a different story. Some songs are meant to be played live, and this just happens to be one of them.

Two of Us

We’ll end just like we started, just you and me, and no one else.

The lead single was one Louis himself proclaimed needed to be written, or else his other art would suffer from being insincere. “I just feel like musically, I almost needed to get this song off my chest,” He recently told Rolling Stone, “People say writing is a part of therapy and in a way, I feel like I’d been avoiding writing this song because I knew I only had one chance to get it right.” For those who may be unaware, at the start of his solo career, Louis tragically lost his mother, the person he was closest with, to leukemia. Out of respect to him, I won’t dwell on this, and it does feel fairly inconsiderate to put the piece under review, per say. I will, however, assert that it is a stunningly orchestrated song. You can feel the authenticity and honesty radiate from the words he’s singing, especially in the big build up of the chorus in comparison to the heart wrenching and softly sung outro. It’s rare we find artists who are proud to wear their hearts on their sleeves and speak with true openness. Each song is an example of this, but Two of Us broadcasts this vulnerability loudly, as he gives us an anthem of accepting that you’re grieving and reminding listeners to always hold onto hope.

We Made It

Nothing in the world that I would change it for, singing something pop-y on the same four chords.

Yes, she’s corny, yes her lyrics might not be up to standard with the rest of his work, and yes, she is my favorite song on the album. We Made It, is filled to the rim with nostalgia and embracing that although the tunnel was dark, there was in the end, a light. For anyone who has grown up with Louis and supported him through all the twists and turns of his decade long career, this song could be a celebration of us and our relationship with our favorite musician. There were always struggles along the way, but we, as fans, never turned our back on him. We were there for him when he needed us to lean on. The sentiment remains when reversed. Ultimately, whatever we needed, he was able to provide. It’s easy to see how much of a team Louis and his followers are, and this song is honoring that. If you’re less familiar with the singer himself, then this track is just a fun little guitar-driven song that reminisces those nights of getting smashed and blazed out of your mind with your young love, and what’s wrong with that?

Too Young

Face to face at the kitchen table, this is everything I’ve waited for.

Every album needs a song to cry to, and for Walls, this is the one. There aren’t too many complexities here, as Louis has said he generally likes to stray away from metaphors when he can. The calm strumming of the acoustic guitar, lends itself beautifully to the track, and never overpowers Louis’ voice. Vocally, this a huge example of a myriad of Louis’ strengths. It contrasts some of the heavily belted pieces we hear later on in the album, and focuses on the softness he’s able to convey in his killer range of a chest voice. His raspy tone demonstrates a certain intimacy. When the song is listened to through headphones with your eyes closed, it almost feels as if Louis is right there on your bedside, gently playing a personal piece he had just written and trusts you enough to perform it for you first. There’s a certain amount of emotional intelligence demonstrated in this song, as he never pulls the victim card, but instead takes the mature approach of admitting to where he’s gone wrong. This notion is used a lot in his writing, and is a sure telling of his character. This catchy little ballad wouldn’t feel out of place on albums of most genres, musically lacking some originality, which is made up for with the candor and polish in his vocals.

Walls

Why is it that “thank-you” is so often bittersweet?

Objectively speaking, this is the most well crafted track on the album. Perhaps even more Oasis-y than some Oasis hits, it even earned itself a writing credit from Noel Gallagher himself. By now, we are more than well accustomed to embracing Louis’ themes of overcoming barriers (or walls). It’s something he writes about often, and why shouldn’t he? He knows what it’s like to stand above what’s been dragging you down more than anyone. The most titular lyric opens and closes the tune, proclaiming, “Nothing wakes you up, like waking up alone.” As soon as you’re hit with this, you know you’re listening to a song which dares the audience to take the musician earnestly. Louis has always been the funny one who has chosen to never take himself too seriously in life. With his music, he had a hard time at the start, choosing to put out records which defined Top 40, but never himself. Walls forces us to accept the artist he’s become. It proves to every listener, that Louis Tomlinson is a musician, a lyricist, a vocalist; a true craftsman. He is a serious artist and this salient track forces us, for once, to accept him as one.

Habit

Took some time cause I ran out of energy, of playing someone I’ve heard I’m supposed to be.

Back in February of 2018, Louis teased this lyric on his twitter, sending fans into a frenzy of when and where this sentiment might come into play. In September of last year, he finally played it for us live. This live version of the song was a complete bore. Again, Louis’ biggest asset in his music may come from his lyrics. He wrote more songs for One Direction than any of the other boys, often partnering with Liam Payne who would work on the melodies, while Louis focused on cutting deep with his words. This is more than evident here, meaning any initial fondness of this song was independently due to the verses he was singing. When the album finally hit stands and we were able to hear the studio version, I have to say, my opinion on this absolute banger changed drastically. It may be a little controversial to say, but this song might have some “Yeehaw” vibes. If you played someone the opening, before his vocals take the forefront, it would’ve been fair to assume it was a Maren Morris hit. Country/Britpop/Indie isn’t exactly something I would ever even consider diving into, but let me tell you, this certified bop has been on repeat. Here’s to hoping him and his band can put together a new live arrangement before the world tour kicks off in March.

Always You

Waiting to wrap your legs around me, and I know you hate to smoke without me.

To be blunt, this song was a fan service. If it wasn’t for Louis’ persistent stans, this track may have been ditched months ago. However, when he gave us a glimpse of the songs upbeat opening lyric three years ago, we latched onto it. For years we bombarded Louis, telling him this song needed to stay on the record, and thank God he listened. He did realize partway through the writing process that this isn’t the sort of music he would like to put out anymore, so it may not resonate with someone looking for the more grungy side of the artist. Always You is almost pure bubblegum and it sounds like it should be radiating loudly off festival speakers. The tune will be a crowd-pleaser, and will surely bring the most hype for live audiences. It’s the sort of song you want to scream out while drunk on a rooftop in the summer atop the ocean in New York City, which is exactly what myself and approximately 6800 more fans will be doing this June.

Fearless

Cash in your weekend treasures, for a suit and tie, a second wife.

God damn is Fearless sexy. The slow and pulsing beat of this song, with the organic guitar, subtle production, and his sultry voice are a recipe for a great and sensual tune. The song was written with the inspiration of feeling youthful, and teaches what to center your sense of self-worth around. There’s a certain level of maturity that comes with a song of these intentions, and in that, Louis is able to showcase his ever growing wisdom. “What I wanted to try and capture with the song is the idea of feeling youthful and how important that is,” He recently said in an interview with Apple Music, “I’m at this age where I’m on the cusp — I’m definitely not a teenager, I’m not a young lad anymore, nor am I old, but I sit in this space where I’m aware of my age now. I hear it as a playground or going back to real youth.”

Perfect Now

Don’t you wanna dance? Just a little dance?

On release day, Louis did a signing, where he bravely asked a few fans what their least favorite track on the album was. Everyone said Perfect Now, earning them a high five from the man himself as well as his genuine agreement. While many look at it as a cheesy romantic love song, masquerading as a rejected early One Direction track, mirroring Little Things or What Makes You Beautiful, I wholeheartedly disagree. It’s easy to chalk it down to being “cheesy” when you approach it as being romantic, but if you look at it as, simply, a love song, that changes the perspective. Louis sings over an appealing and charming little guitar melody, and you can almost hear his smile. It’s easy to picture him singing this to his younger sisters as a piece of brotherly encouragement, or to a good friend who needs cheering up after a hard day. This darling melody invites you to dance around your bedroom feeling loved. Perfect Now proves that not everything has to be deep and serious; allow yourself to be open to simply feeling happy over the little things like a lyric that makes you smile. When in the chorus he prompts, “Keep your head up, love,” listeners can’t help but feel a sense of personal support from the artist, which is exactly what makes this song so special.

Defenseless

We’re sleeping on our problems like we’ll solve them in our dreams.

It’s understandable why Louis likes to stray from metaphors in his writing, because generally speaking, they simply aren’t good. This is proven with lyrics such as, “I’m running to you like a moth into a flame”. As well as this, the rhyming of “defenseless” with “fences” and then “defenseless” again, doesn’t exactly sit well. The song does grow to be much better than anticipated after the first verse. The pre-chorus has a strong beat, which you’ll find yourself accidentally clapping along to in public. The bridge allows Louis to explore his falsetto, which is something we’ve never heard from him before. It’s strong and poignant, and it’s a real shame that his old band never gave him the opportunity to use his voice in all its capabilities. The control Louis has over his vocals throughout this song is astonishing, and almost unheard of in most modern music outside of musical theatre. This track alone, proves that he is one of the most vocally gifted artists not only to come out of One Direction, but to come out of the last decade at all.

Only the Brave

It’s a church of burnt romances and I’m too far gone to pray.

The lyrics to this song are borderline poetry. Each and every word draws you in and leaves you speechless. It’s a short song, ending at one minute and forty-four seconds, and that works well. It leaves us wanting more, even when we’ve reached the very end of the whole experience. The tune feels like a mantra; something to sing to yourself as you prepare for something you’re nervous about or to congratulate yourself on completing a task you never thought you could accomplish. There’s no proper structure and his voice has a retro filter over top, giving the whole thing a bit of a wartime vibe. The most powerful moment is undoubtedly when he sings, “It’s a solo song, and it’s only for the brave,” as a way of patting himself on the back for where he is now in life and in his career. It’s the perfect way to bring home the album. After 12 tracks demonstrating it, it is proven to us that he doesn’t need his ex-bandmates, he doesn’t need a big production, he doesn’t need Simon Cowell, he doesn’t need other songwriters dictating what direction to go, because he is Louis Tomlinson and he is brave.

#walls review #keira millian #050220 #louis tomlinson

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strangenewfriends · 4 years

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During a pivotal year of his solo career, Harry Styles has notched another monumental achievement: his first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

As “Watermelon Sugar,” the standout track from Styles’ sophomore solo LP Fine Line, lifts 7-1 on this week’s Hot 100 tally, Styles tops the chart for the first time, after previously reaching a No. 2 peak as a member of One Direction. After starting his solo career with his classic rock influences on his sleeve, Styles has become a fixture at pop radio in 2020, with both “Watermelon Sugar” and “Adore You” becoming ubiquitous top 10 hits this year.

How shocking is the ascent of “Watermelon Sugar”? And what could the song mean for Styles’ future at the Grammy Awards? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below.

1. On a scale of 1-10, how surprised are you that “Watermelon Sugar” is the song to finally give Harry Styles his first Hot 100 chart-topper?

Andrew Unterberger: Three months ago, it would've been a 10 for sure. Types of songs that don't usually go to No. 1 in 2020: fourth official singles, songs that have already dropped off the Hot 100 for multiple months after debuting, rock (or at least rock-based pop) songs. "Watermelon Sugar" was each of 'em, and even as recently as last week, I'd have been, like, an 8 about it going all the way to No. 1 -- even with a viral video, good audio-only streaming numbers and huge radio support, it seemed to have hit a ceiling outside the top 5. But a concentrated fan campaign and some good chart timing have put it over the top, and maybe I shouldn't be so surprised by that in 2020 after all.

Jason Lipshutz: I’d give it a 7 -- not because of any deficiency or quirk with the song, but because of its circuitous route to the top of the Hot 100 chart. Styles performed “Watermelon Sugar” for the first time on Saturday Night Live on Nov. 16, 2019, and released music videos for three other Fine Line songs before finally returning to it in May. That’s an incredibly slow burn -- to provide some context, “Watermelon Sugar” was released the same weekend as the ill-fated Charlie’s Angels reboot! -- and an unlikely path to pop ubiquity, to say the least.

Joe Lynch: I guess 9? It's super catchy and easy to get into, but it's just not the vibe of most 2019-2020 Hot 100 toppers – although given that Taylor Swift's "Cardigan" cozied up to the top slot last week, perhaps we're at a point in the pandemic where people are specifically turning to something that's a far cry from the top 40 norm for a break in monotony.

Lyndsey Havens: I'd say a 6. Three years ago (and still today) I thought that "Sign of the Times" could have and should have topped the chart, and then I thought that "Adore You" might finally do the trick. But people do say "third time's the charm" for a reason, and it makes sense that, after two strong top 10 singles, the continual growth of Fine Line well into 2020 and the strong promotional push, that this summer-ready, breezy pop-rock track has claimed the chart's top spot.

Stephen Daw: I'm clocking in at a solid 5 — it's surprising (to me, at least) that it took Harry Styles this long to log his first No. 1, but as soon as I heard "Watermelon Sugar," I was confident that, if a song off of Fine Line was going to reach the top of the Hot 100, it would be this one.

2. The success of Styles’ second album, Fine Line, has been one of the biggest stories in mainstream pop this year -- the album is still in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart eight months after its release. Why do you think Styles’ sophomore solo LP has resonated so well this year?

Andrew Unterberger: I wish I knew -- as do record company folks around the world, I imagine. It's a very good album and Harry is an extremely likeable star, but nothing about an album that feels largely like a tribute to '70s pop-rock and post-peak Paul McCartney would've struck me as an album to take him to that next level of stardom. He's just a star -- one with a big-enough gravitational pull to bend the mainstream to him -- and I won't underestimate him so easily again.

Jason Lipshutz: In 2020, artists like Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez and 5 Seconds of Summer have all released top-notch pop full-lengths... but I have returned to Fine Line more than any of them. Part of that has to do with its sense of uplift and enthusiasm during a particularly trying year -- shout-out to “Treat People With Kindness” for snapping me out of some grade-A funks -- but Fine Line’s songs are stronger than those of Styles’ self-titled debut, the pacing is immaculate, the hits are far more effective and Styles is more comfortable in his own, ‘70s-pop-channeling skin. Fine Line is part throwback, part comfort food, part magnetic artistic presence, and remains an excellent front-to-back listen.

Joe Lynch: I think he's in a great spot in his career: not only has his 1D fan base embraced his maturing sound (which, to be fair, isn't a tough sell – this is very accessible pop-rock), but his gender-bending, classic rock-worshiping fashionista persona has expanded his listenership beyond the realm of card-carrying Directioners. Plus, it's an album that's crafted to last: this is meticulous studio pop that mostly eschews the tiresome trends and tricks most producers feel obligated to slap on a recording to make it feel “contemporary.” Fine Line occupies its own lane instead of competing against two-or-three new sound-alike albums a month.

Lyndsey Havens: Harry is the "perfect" pop star: his One Direction past earned him a built-in (and very dedicated) fan base, he’s mysterious enough but generous with his content, queen Stevie Nicks has become his number one fan, and, of course, he delivered an album filled with fantastic pop-rock hits and ballads. When Harry Styles arrived, fans had to adjust to Styles' sonic pivot. But by the time he delivered Fine Line, both Styles and his fans had matured -- and those pop-rock roots he planted years prior were in bloom. There was no adjustment period, and in my opinion, that allowed Fine Line to be immediately and repeatedly consumed.

Stephen Daw: There's a lot to be said for Harry's massive, mobilized fan base, and for his status as a burgeoning pop auteur in the modern era. But I think both of those facts only help uplift the fact that Fine Line is simply a great album. The songs aren't pigeonholed into one specific sound, yet they retain this classic, pop-rock finish to them that passes the minivan test; there's something for parents and kids in all of these songs.

3. Styles’ other Fine Line hit, “Adore You,” peaked at No. 6 earlier this year, and comes in at No. 12 this week. Are you a “Watermelon Sugar” person or an “Adore You” person?

Andrew Unterberger: I think "Adore You" is the better song, but I'm glad that "Watermelon Sugar" was the song to get him to No. 1. "Adore You" was the dead-center top 40 single -- and even "Falling" could've caught some post-"Someone You Loved" radio spillover -- but "Watermelon Sugar" is just pure Harry. He couldn't have asked for a better, more validating single to affirm his superstardom.

Jason Lipshutz: Hard to pick one, but give me “Watermelon Sugar” for the higher sing-along quality. Watching Styles perform Fine Line in its entirety at the Forum in Los Angeles last December included an arena of fans shouting “Watermelon sugar, HIGH!” -- and this was before the song was a chart-conquering hit. I suspect “Watermelon Sugar” is going to be a euphoric live staple in the coming years, which gives it the edge for me.

Joe Lynch: Definitely "Watermelon Sugar,“ a perfect, laid-back summer jam that gently uplifts without ever demanding attention. "Adore You" is solid but tailored for a specific topic, whereas "Watermelon Sugar" is the kind of softly buoyant treat that floats well in a variety of contexts.

Lyndsey Havens: I find it interesting that the two songs off Fine Line to stick around the chart's upper echelon are a bit similar-sounding. One of my favorite things about Styles is the risks he'll take, best evidenced by his debut solo single "Sign of the Times,” but also by Fine Line tracks like "Lights Up," "Falling" and "To Be So Lonely." But that's exactly what makes me a Harry Styles fan -- he's no one trick pony (insert joke about him heading in more than one direction), and while "Adore You" and "Watermelon Sugar" may not showcase his range, they've both become Styles standards for me. But to finally answer the question, I have to go with "Adore You" for the lyrics alone. I mean.... how can you compete, or argue, when he pleads like that?

Stephen Daw: They're both excellent songs, but if I had to pick, I'm partial to "Adore You." Sonically, the groovy bass line and stylized guitar riffs hit me right where I live. Lyrically, I respond a lot more to the "strawberry lipstick state of mind" than I do to something that "tastes like strawberries on a summer evening." But they both have strawberries in there, so it's a win either way!

4. Styles is now the second member of One Direction to score a solo No. 1, following Zayn with “Pillowtalk.” If you had to choose one of the other members -- Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson -- to someday score a No. 1 single, who would you put your money on?

Andrew Unterberger: Can't say the prospects for any of them reaching the Hot 100's peak are looking particularly robust right now, but if I had to choose one, I guess I'd say Liam. He has connections throughout the pop world that could result in him finding his way onto the right collab -- with buddy Post Malone, perhaps -- to find his way back to the top. Rooting for Louis, though! Go Louis!

Jason Lipshutz: I’m going to zag a little and go with Liam Payne, who scored an unexpected top 10 hit with the Quavo team-up “Strip That Down” and has been trying to recapture that magic in the years since. Payne’s solo debut didn’t offer any other standout singles, but he’s proven capable of headlining a rhythmic pop single that sticks around at radio, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he does so again over the next few years.

Joe Lynch: That's a tough question, because I could see Liam or Louis hopping on a track as a featured artist that goes all the way to the top. But if we're talking primary credited artist, it's gotta be Niall Horan, who has demonstrated probably the most solid catalog and sonic cohesion thus far of those three. Not saying it seems likely, but then again, when Fine Line dropped, who thought "Watermelon Sugar" would sweeten up the top spot on the Hot 100?

Lyndsey Havens: Justice for Niall's "No Judgement"! I played that song a lot when it first came out. But I actually think it's a smarter financial move to bet on Liam Payne, considering his strategy of collaboration. He's worked with Zedd, Quavo and Alesso, among others, and I wouldn't be all that surprised if in another year or so he lands on a track -- or a remix -- that shoots to No. 1 for the star power alone.

Stephen Daw: While Liam is the only other member to get one of his songs into the Top 10 of the Hot 100, I'm putting my chips down on Niall. Heartbreak Weather turned out to be a pretty fun record, and I remain convinced that "Black and White" is going to have a second life (much like "Watermelon Sugar”)!

5. Finish this sentence: at next year’s Grammy Awards, Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” will __________.

Andrew Unterberger: ...be shut out. It may score Harry his first nomination or two -- either solo or with 1D -- but considering how the Recording Academy has given him the cold shoulder so far, and seeing how overlooked he was even among this year's VMAs nods, I don’t know if I see him taking home his first Gramophone for it. (Uh-oh, looks like I'm easily underestimating him again -- never mind, I say the song sweeps.)

Jason Lipshutz: ...be nominated for record of the year, and Fine Line will be nominated for album of the year, and justice will have finally been served to Styles, who has yet to garner a single nomination over the course of his career. Will either win? It’s too early to say, but I like Fine Line’s chances at this point.

Joe Lynch: ...sow seeds of discontent; the Grammys will continue to ignore Harry Styles, and the fans will unleash their exasperation on Twitter with the machine gun-rapidity of a cartoon character spitting out watermelon seeds.

Stephen Daw: ...probably get nominated for record of the year. It would be worthy of a spot in the song of the year and best pop solo performance categories as well, but something tells me that if one of his songs were to be nominated for those categories, "Adore You" stands a better chance. While it would be great to see Harry win, if he were nominated in this category, he'd likely be going up against the likes of Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, The Weeknd and/or Megan Thee Stallion, and I just don't think he'd be able to clinch the ROTY win with that kind of competition.

Lyndsey Havens: ...still taste like strawberries on a summer evenin’.

#for the anon who asked #long post

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seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 2 years

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So... I have been thinking about LT1 (the 2018 version) lately and here are some of my thoughts/theories about it.

Genre: pop-rock, pop-punk, Britpop, maybe an indie-rock song or two to prepare us for the sound change with LT2 (Walls).

Songs that I'm sure would've been on the album: Just Hold On, taking the place of DLBYH and TOU, since I don't think he was ready for TOU at that time, the subject was still a little "too close and early" at the time, y'know what I mean? Back To You and Miss You, with Just Like You taking the place of OTB as the closing message of the album.

Songs from Walls that I think would've been on LT1 2018: Always You, Too Young, Habit and We Made It.

Other Songs That I Think Were For This Album: Secret Heart (even with the edited audio it has that same sound feeling as BTY, MY and JHO, so it could probably be a single, maybe another collab with a DJ). Help and Changes (the Blackbear song) lyrically speaking, it has the same vibes as BTY and MY, which I think was a big theme with him back then.

Album Title: Louis is too creative for a self-titled debut album (sorry, Liam and Harry) and I think the album titles that would make more sense for him at the time are Back To You, since he was coming back to us, he even made a video about it, I know it was promo for the song/mv but it seemed to be a big thing for him. We Made It, because he and the fans made it, and he has said multiple times that the song is about his career and fans. Just Like You, another important song/title for him, telling us through his music that he's just like us. Changes, not only talking about the change from boyband member to solo artist, but also referencing the changes that would come up as his solo career progresses, like the sound change. (My HC: Back To You, it just makes sense, y'know?)

Sales/Impact: At the time, 1D fans were still missing the 1D sound and were still looking for it with not much success, LT1 2018 would've probably been the closest thing to it, probably a bad thing for/with critics ("he still can't let go" "he hasn't found himself" "he's not leaving his comfort zone") but a total success with fans, his 1D fans would feel comfortable and familiar enough with his lyrics and music and his solo music would be catchy and relatable enough to bring in new fans. Probably no Grammy nominations (Sony, y'know?) but he would've definitely beaten his former band mates (and other musicians) at award shows with fan votes alone.

Thoughts? Theories? I would love to hear your opinions on this.

Hello,

Interesting and good thoughts! We actually knew quite a bit about the unreleased LT1 already.

Scroll down to the bottom of this masterpost for LT1-related posts from fans recording the journey in real time.

I agree that Always You, We Made It, Perfect Now, and potentially Habit and Too Young would have gone on LT1, along with Back to You, Just Hold On, Miss You, and Just Like You. The songwriting timeline is consistent for these songs to be included. Thematically, they tell a coherent story of young love and his 1D past. (Maybe also Don’t Let It Break Your Heart.)

Secret Heart was written later (probably 2018, with Jamie Hartman) and registered in 2019. Sadly, it was probably one of the last four songs cut from the album that became Walls. If I had one wish for Walls, it would be to switch out Perfect Now for Secret Heart.

Help and Changes were probably always written to be sold to other artists. But I loved Louis’ demo recording of Help. I really love Changes too.

Album title: my guess is that this album narrative was structured as a Louis-Eleanor love story, and would’ve been called, For You. Louis pushed it so hard that year.

Impact and sales: the numbers speak for themselves. It would have been a blockbuster and won many fan-voted awards.

#lt1 #lt0?#Louis first album

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kingstylesdaily · 4 years

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Five Burning Questions: Harry Styles Earns His First Hot 100 No. 1 With 'Watermelon Sugar'

During a pivotal year of his solo career, Harry Styles has notched another monumental achievement: his first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

How shocking is the ascent of “Watermelon Sugar”? And what could the song mean for Styles’ future at the Grammy Awards? Billboard staffers answer these questions and more below.

1. On a scale of 1-10, how surprised are you that “Watermelon Sugar” is the song to finally give Harry Styles his first Hot 100 chart-topper?

3. Styles’ other Fine Line hit, “Adore You,” peaked at No. 6 earlier this year, and comes in at No. 12 this week. Are you a “Watermelon Sugar” person or an “Adore You” person?

5. Finish this sentence: at next year’s Grammy Awards, Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” will __________.

Lyndsey Havens: ...still taste like strawberries on a summer evenin’.

source: Billboard

#kingstylesdaily #Harry Styles #hs: billboard #August 2020

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johns-album-reviews · 4 years

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Courteeners “More.Again.Forever" album review

Courteeners

More.Again.Forever review

7/10

The Courteeners are back after four years of silence with their “Best chance at a number 1 album” Liam Fray admitted. The new album More.Again.Forever sees the courteeners going in a different, almost experimental direction. On tracks such as “More.Again.Forever” and “Better Man” Liam displays fantastic lyricism and shows he is a true wordsmith despite revealing he has been struggling with writer’s block over the past few years. Joining these arguably somewhat poetic tracks are some truly back to basics in your face courteeners bangers that will be sure to get any crowd moving and wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Heaton park setlist in 2019. Tracks such as “previous parties” and “heart attack” fit perfectly into this album for exactly this reason, when they’re played live they will really get things bouncing, just as a courteeners gig should be. In their four years away, Liam admitted he had been struggling with addiction and talked about how he felt a lack of self-improvement. This album shows how he has risen from these depths as an artist and throughout the album there is an underlying theme of bettering yourself, picking yourself up and finding your own happiness. Despite this being a relatively good album if you’re only going to put 10 songs on the track list, there can be no fillers but unfortunately, there are. However, the new direction the band is pointing towards seems positive and I think they needed to push the boundaries with this one, and they did.

The album begins with the rightly named tune heart attack. This is a real in your face opener that screams the message that the Courteeners are back at it again, with a heavy riff, a repetitive drum beat and somewhat catchy lyrics. The chorus suggests that at one time this was possibly going to be one of their singles with the lyrics “ Here we go fast, new tempo make another song for the radio”. Personally, I don’t think this would have been a bad idea but inevitably it didn’t happen. Nevertheless, it’s a strong opener and will grow to be a classic Courteeners tune. Which brings us to heavy jacket. Which Isn’t one of their greatest songs by any stretch of the imagination and it should not have been the albums lead single. If this song was the first I’d ever heard of the Courteeners, it would have been the last, honestly it doesn’t get you excited for the rest of the album to come which I’m sure left many fans disinterested and probably deflated their excitement about the album. Although there is no denying that when its played to a live crowd, every single lyric will be sung back to Liam and that can never be a negative thing.

Heavy Jacket leads on to “More.Again.Forever” which is honestly a brilliant song. Liam has pushed the boat out with this tune offering a more poetic spin on things which was a refreshing change of direction from the first two tracks on the record. Lyrically it has to be up there with one of their best songs and is has a feel of “the 17th” to it from their previous album. The bass riff throughout this tune interweaves perfectly with his easy on the ear impressive lyrics that really make you think. Better Man has more of an acoustic feel to the rest of the album and I think it fits in with the flow of the album nicely. Within this song he is trying to relay the message of self betterness. The chorus especially shows Liam putting his heart into his lyrics talking about his plans to be better in the future after the problems he has faced in the past few years. This will resonate will many fans and will make it special when played live. Liam’s vocals on this track sound brilliant.

Hanging off your cloud follows on well from Better Man, on first listen this track didn’t seem to offer much, but after a few more listens I realised the lyrics, violin and piano all work perfectly together and it is truly a beautiful song. The song builds up to an impressive crescendo and everyone who listens to this track can relate in some way. Weather it be a girl or a boy that you used to see in your past, this song makes you think, and this is important and that’s what makes fans want to listen again. From a slow timeless “love song” to a fast-paced banger- previous parties. This song has got classic Courteeners written all over it and if they choose to play this live at future shows, madness will reign every single time, without a doubt. The nod to artists is clever in the first verse, Liam wasn’t suffering with writer’s block when he wrote this. When the song slows down midway you can envision the mosh pits and crowds getting ready to go mad when the chorus kicks back in. Brilliant.

The joy of missing out comes next with a serious likeness to “modern love” but nowhere near as brilliantly executed. As I mentioned at the start, this album has a few fillers and unfortunately, this is one. The muffled lyrics just make for uneasy listening, definitely one of the lows of the album. However, some recognition must go to Michael for this song, he showed his worth drumming on this one. From a low to a high with the next tune “one day at a time”. This is the best song on the album that they didn’t put out as a single and defiantly pushed up my rating of this album. It has a lovely message in that you can be the source of your own happiness, only you can make the changes. Honestly the chorus gave me Goosebumps and when listening to new music this is exactly the feeling that you want, and I got it. Again, this reminded me of another old record, “small bones” which is also a brilliant song. Liam really shows off his vocals on this album with soft songs such as this and “Better man” and loud in your face vocals like on “heart attack” and “previous parties”

The penultimate song “Take it on the chin” carries on the theme of picking yourself up and moving on. This song is less experimental than most of the album and is quite middle of the road, but I think it worked quite well. With a nod to Paul Gascoigne and a somewhat catchy, punchy chorus it’s a tune you could have expected from courteeners. Which leads us to the last song of the album “is heaven even worth it?” which is a disappointing end to good album. This album should have gone out with a bang like it came in with a bang with “heat attack”. This song could have been left out and you wouldn’t be missing much. As much as his slow experimental songs on this record have worked well for the most part this one just missed the button unfortunately. It reminded me of an elbow song, which can never be a great thing.

Overall More.Again.Forever was an experimental journey for Liam and the Courteeners that worked. With a few great tunes that will almost certainly be put on the setlist for shows to come and a few that made you think and tugged on your heart strings. This new direction that the courteeners are heading in seems bright, you can’t stay relevant if you make the same boring recycled albums so I am glad they didn’t do this and attempted to bush the boundaries even if a few of the songs missed the mark by an inch.

#courteeners #album review #more again forever

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liam-93-productions · 5 years

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Fans have had to wait over a year for Liam Payne's next single drop, but the consensus is that the gap was definitely worth it. "Stack It Up" released on Sep. 18 along with a colourful video shot in a New York arcade. The Ed Sheeran-penned track features A Boogie wit da Hoodie and is a continuation of the former One Directioner's solo urban sound. To celebrate the much-awaited release, Bustle was given an exclusive inside look at Payne's NYC trip to promote the single.

"Me and Boogie had so much fun doing ["Stack It Up"]. This is a song I’m really proud of and I can’t wait to show you what’s coming next!” Payne said in a statement.

The upbeat track is all about having money on your mind, but Payne admitted that he wasn't sure about the lyrics at first. Speaking to Hits Radio, the 26-year-old said he asked Sheeran to alter a few of the lines, "so it's about making money with someone or for someone, or for a specific reason rather [than] just about making money." He added: "We all know you can have all the money you want but, at the same time, if you've got nobody to share it with it's a bit pointless."

Compared to the OTT music videos that are all over the industry right now, Payne's arcade extravaganza is a breath of fresh air. Fun yet simple, it comes complete with a retro game animation of the singer and Boogie.

Below, you'll find a behind-the-scenes diary of Payne's New York jaunt. From Times Square outings and candid recording booth moments to an insight into his role as a global ambassador for Hugo Boss, it's jam-packed with honesty and humour.

In just two years as a solo artist, Payne has sold more than 18 million singles. Starting with debut track "Strip That Down", his career has blossomed with each and every step, leading to a succession of catchy hits like "Polaroid", "Bedroom Floor", and Fifty Shades Freed's "For You" duet with Rita Ora.

Payne has spent 2019 working on his debut album, although fans are still eagerly awaiting a release date. (Let's hope one is on the way real soon.)

But music hasn't been his only project. In the summer, his capsule collection — encompassing a mixture of streetwear-type styles and formal pieces — with Hugo Boss dropped. November will see the launch of a new Sky One special starring Payne. Teaming up with former special forces soldier Ant Middleton, the star will travel to Namibia for an adventure full of honest, eye-opening discussions.

Liam Payne’s single "Stack It Up" ft. A Boogie wit da Hoodie is out now.

#liam payne #stack it up #bustle #liam's press #25.09.2019

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verseziam · 5 years

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So I guess last time the rollout for the album fell thru for whatever reason and now they're trying it again the exact same way. So they had to get a catchy song, release more songs and then finally the album🤞. Labels are so unoriginal tbh. I knew when he started liking tweets with ziam in them that we were gonna get the same ol thing in interviews. But hey the only thing we can do is give him support bc if we don't his hard work is for nothing. Free Liam!

you know what nonnie you could be right..i think liam has had his album done for a long time now but his label/team keeps pushing it back for whatever reason im not sure...like why release singles when you have an album that’s done? zero logic but i don’t expect much from his shitty team

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ssfoc · 6 years

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Why do you think Liam doesn’t have any writing credits on any songs on his EP? It smashes, though, every song is so different and unique (Slow is so so catchy!) and he finally shows off his incredible voice (those high notes!!) Do you think maybe he saved ‘his own’ songs, written by him, for the album itself? I can’t wait, I hope he’ll do great, I’m so proud of him

A possible scenario is that either Liam or Republic was not happy with his album, or with the chart performance of his singles so far. Instead of not releasing anything, they decided to shop for a small group of songs that could be put together as an EP (or had these songs sold to Liam). This buys some time to rework the album. I am pretty sure Liam will have writing credit there.

Yes, they are bangers, so so good. I’m so happy with them, actually really happy because I didn’t really like Liam’s previous songs. Now I feel like he’s exercising his talent and showing what he’s capable of singing. I feel like the best of Liam is starting to come out! 😊

#first time ep #solo liam #25 august 2018

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zayntoxicateme · 6 years

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June 18, 2018

We managed to catch up with the quietly enigmatic singer.

Read "How Do You Explain Zayn?"

Zayn, the one-named man who found himself reborn after leaving One Direction, is now on GQ's cover. In his shoot with Sebastian Mader, Zayn channels Tyler Durden and Leo DiCaprio's Romeo. And the wildly enigmatic singer also let down his guard, briefly, in talking to writer Carrie Battan about his relationship with Gigi Hadid, the self indulgence of being a "star," and his crafty use of the paparazzi for his own devices—a story you can read here (full story is below; the link will take you to the GQ website)

How Do You Explain Zayn?

Carrie Battan

Photographs by

Sebastian Mader

The 25-year-old British singer is deeply, maddeningly, almost trolling-ly enigmatic. And that cultivated mystery—along with his disdain for the standard rules of superstardom—is probably what puts him on the short list for COOLEST HUMAN ALIVE. On a recent Friday night, though, he dropped his guard and spilled his guts.

There are exactly two places in New York on a Friday night where Zayn Malik can smoke Marlboro Lights as liberally and openly as he pleases, unencumbered by gawkers or the city's increasingly draconian anti-smoking laws. The ﬁrst is Zayn Malik's SoHo apartment, where he spends the majority of his time, zoning out, reading books, listening to music, and "partaking in the herb," as he says. The second is the Mary A. Whalen, a 172-foot-long restored-tanker-ship-turned-nonproﬁt-hangout-spot that is docked off the shore of Red Hook, Brooklyn. The ship is closed for business after 6 P.M., but tonight its leader, a hardy blonde ship preservationist named Carolina, has agreed to keep it open late to accommodate us. No crowds, a few plastic chairs, and a gently lilting surface that is basically a giant ashtray.

There is just one problem: The temperature on deck is decreasing rapidly with the setting sun, and Zayn—the 25-year-old former British-boy-band member, current solo pop-ish star, and all-around inscrutable avatar of contemporary celebrity—has arrived with nothing on his person but a lighter, a backpack, and an iPhone. No jacket on his rail-thin five-ten frame—just a pair of charcoal skinny jeans, a distressed Pink Floyd T-shirt, a bright pink beanie that obscures his new ﬂower skull tattoo (or "tah-oo," as Zayn pronounces it). He looks so modernly cool, blending a hip-hop swagger with a punk-rock edge, that he should receive a cut from Urban Outﬁtters every time someone makes a purchase. He is the only man whose Disney-princess-long eyelashes seem to bolster his machismo rather than diminish it. Nobody this dreamy has ever bothered to check the weather to see if he should grab a jacket before leaving the house. Through chattering teeth, he rejects multiple offers of blankets. "It's all good," he insists, burping faintly after taking a swig of his Peroni. "I'm cool."

Still, Carolina avails us of the ship's warmer galley. "I might have a cigarette ﬁrst?" Zayn asks, as though he needs permission, gesturing toward the other side of the ship. Over there is his assistant Taryn, a young woman with French-braided pigtails that make her look more like a high school soccer player than someone designated to manage the everyday logistics of a notoriously slippery superstar's life. She is the custodian of his pack, doling out individual cigarettes to Zayn periodically.

But Carolina assures us Zayn will not have to stay outside to smoke his cigarette. She'll let us smoke belowdecks on the condition that Zayn provide her one of his Marlboros and permission to snap a photograph. She promises she won't post it until after the story runs. "Uh…yeah?" Zayn replies, sounding sincerely surprised that he is the one who has to answer a question that was directed at him.

A steely detachment from life's mundane logistical concerns is part of almost every celebrity's existence, but it is the core of Zayn's being. This character trait has ruinous potential, but it also means he gets to live his life exactly how he pleases. And it means that he doesn't have to express a single word or hint of desire in order for the conditions around him to re-arrange to his liking and comfort. There's a hapless Peter Pan quality to it that makes it tough to hold against him.

We settle around the table in the '70s-style kitchen on the boat. It's 15 degrees warmer down here and private. Zayn instantly appears relieved, his shoulders unclenching and his brow de-furrowing. He stops shivering. He is in a womb-like space, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, and he seems palpably and unexpectedly happy. "Thanks," he says quietly and earnestly in Carolina's direction as she seals off the door behind us. "Couple of times I tried to quit. But I just like smoking cigs. Simple as that."

There is a major conundrum in Zayn's life, which is that he may be constitutionally incapable of being a star. He tells me so almost immediately. "I don't work well in group situations, with loads of people staring at me. And when you say 'star'…everyone wants you to be this kind of character that owns a room or is overly arrogant or conﬁdent. I'm not that guy," he says. "So I don't want to be a star." Zayn seems to aspire to the soul of Prince, or some cult '90s skate-punk ﬁgure, but is trapped in the trajectory of a Justin Timberlake.

A decade ago, someone like Zayn would not have become the Chosen Member of a band like One Direction. The Chosen Member is the boy-band graduate whose solo career evolves and hurdles into grown-up relevance, ultimately overshadowing the band's legacy. Until recently, you could spot a Chosen Member from a mile away—he was unequivocally the best dancer and the one the most girls wanted to bring home to their parents. But Zayn never ﬁt the mold of a Chosen Member. From the day One Direction formed, on the U.K. show The X Factor in 2010, he was cast as the smoldering background foil to the eager-to-please Harry Styles and Liam Payne. His energy and his dance moves were muted. He presented as the quiet, disillusioned one.

But in the past ﬁve years or so, it has become acceptable—necessary, even—for a young pop star to show some edge. Thanks to the social-media-fueled, ever intensifying quest for authenticity, real or feigned, we no longer expect our most famous musicians to be toothless and virginal robots. Now we demand that they show a certain degree of lustiness, instability, anti-heroism. The Weeknd scored a No. 1 hit with an elaborately coded song about a cocaine binge—and then followed it up with another No. 1 hit, this one explicitly referencing a cocaine binge. Lana Del Rey's entire aesthetic revolves around a kind of narcotized death wish. And Taylor Swift spent her last album desperately trying to persuade us that she really is villainous. Even Disney's babiest-faced of pop princesses, Selena Gomez, is getting mileage out of her demons, playing a Girl, Interrupted–style heroine and rocking a hospital bracelet in a music video. Face tattoos are basically required for entry onto the Billboard Hot 100 these days. Squeaky-clean is no more.

And yet even for the most tortured-seeming of these artists, there is still a ﬁerce expectation that they play the game. Mild drug habits or mental illnesses are perfectly acceptable, so long as someone is willing to write catchy songs about those tendencies and then later gussy them up for arena audiences and gamely ﬁeld jokes from talk-show hosts. Even Justin Bieber, the poster child for our current era of troubled pop stars, is always just one phone call with his pastor away from being able to quiet his demons and pop-and-lock on demand.

Zayn seems like a perfect avatar for this new generation of bruised pop heartthrobs, but he's the only one of his cohorts who can back it up with a sincerely jaded disposition and an unpredictable way of being. He is the only one who is staunchly unwilling to play the game. You will not ﬁnd Zayn cheesing with a random group of famous people for someone's Instagram story at Coachella, nor will you ﬁnd Zayn learning the latest viral dance move with Ellen DeGeneres. When he released his solo debut, Mind of Mine, two years ago, he opted out of touring altogether, surely pissing off a bunch of emotionally and ﬁnancially invested parties. And although he promises to be more public-facing this time around—he insists he will tour—he's still removed from the album-cycle content churn. He says the creators of Atlanta have reached out to him to appear on the show—a dream opportunity for anyone in the music industry at this moment—but persnickety Zayn is still mulling the potential. "If the part's right, I'd be really into it," he says. Even the "behind-the-scenes" video that accompanied his new single fails to actually take anyone "behind the scenes"—it's just the song playing over some B-roll. "I guess the cameraman didn't get too much footage," Zayn says on the boat. "I might have been running away from him a bit."

When I ask him why he failed to show up at the Met Gala a couple days earlier, he almost chokes on his cigarette smoke as he exhales. He went to the Met Gala once, in 2016, and that experience symbolized everything he detests about being a famous person—and the litany of coercion and artiﬁce that someone in his position experiences.

"I did go, but I didn't go there to be like, 'Yo, take me serious,' " he remembers. "I was taking the piss! I went there as my favorite Mortal Kombat character, Jax."

He continues: "The Met Gala is not necessarily anything that I ever knew about or was about. But my [former] stylist…would say to me, 'This is really good for you to do.' And no matter how strong you are mentally, you can always be swayed to do certain things. Now, it's not something I would go to. I'd rather be sitting at my house, doing something productive, than dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on a red carpet.… To do the self-indulgent Look at me, I'm amazing thing on the red carpet, it's not me."

Here Zayn catches himself, probably realizing this might register as a diss of Gigi Hadid, the 23-year-old supermodel he's been in an on-again, off-again relationship with for two years. The supermodel who very much seemed to enjoy dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on the red carpet days earlier.

"I get it, and I understand that people gain enjoyment from it," he says. I ask if he followed along with the coverage from his couch. "No, no," he says, and pauses. "Gi stole the night, though. The stained glass on her dress. Everyone else just put a cross on."

When I ask Zayn if he has any conﬁdants in the industry, he shakes his head vigorously. "No," he says. "I don't ever want to cross wires with other people too much. I just want to see the world through my eyes."

Zayn grew up with three sisters ("I was outnumbered," he says) and is still surrounded by women, ensuring that there's a high level of exasperated but fond maternal energy swirling at all times. Blood relatives and the Hadids—particularly Gigi's mother, Yolanda, who seems to have taken on a Kris Jenner–ian role in his life—make up much of his inner circle today. ("We get on. She's really fucking cool. She's a Capricorn. She's the same star sign as me.") He recently parted ways with his high-proﬁle manager. His best friend is a younger cousin.

"I'm not [in] the mix," he says. "I'm outside the mix."

This kind of stubborn non-participation, of course, is a reaction to the years Zayn spent being in a mix that was not to his liking. When he was a kid, growing up in the northern working-class city of Bradford, singing was just one part of an aimless but all-consuming creative impulse. He never thought he was much of a singer, until one day the choir leader at his performing-arts school praised his voice and suggested that he try out for Britain's premier vocal-competition show. Zayn's mom had to drag him from his bed at 4 A.M. to attend the audition, where he broke from the typical pop fare with a rendition of Mario's "Let Me Love You."

After his X Factor audition, there was an exchange (never aired) in which head judge Simon Cowell probed baby Zayn. " 'You know, with all these online platforms, why haven't you ever put out anything prior to this?' " Zayn remembers Cowell asking him. Zayn seemed the type, after all: a soft-spoken and artistically gifted teen who liked to sing alone in his bedroom and tinkered with rudimentary song-recording equipment. "I didn't necessarily think my stuff would be seen amongst the millions of people who put their stuff online. So I went with X Factor at that age," he says now. Like any ﬁckle teenager, Zayn "just did it for fun, to see what would happen."

The day that Zayn auditioned, he was among many aspiring solo artists rejected by the judges. But ﬁve of the young singers were cobbled together as a boy band in a later segment. Thus was born One Direction and a rabid fandom that British people love to compare to Beatlemania. A craze so ﬁerce and massive that it generated global synchronized ﬂash mobs and fan-ﬁction authors who've reportedly scored six-ﬁgure book deals. In an instant, Zayn was thrust into a star-making boot camp, fast-tracked to an uncontrollable type of notoriety without being given the opportunity to consider alternatives.

It's no secret that Zayn didn't love One Direction's sound or his bandmates. "My vision didn't necessarily always go with what was going on within the band," he says. There was something so earnest, so wholesomely dweeby, about the whole thing. It wasn't cool, and Zayn didn't particularly enjoy being dragged around the world to look like an epic dork during the prime of his youth.

When he split off, in 2015, Zayn ﬁnally got to do all the things he hadn't been able to in One Direction: dye his hair, grow his beard, sing about sex. But he was also introduced to a fresh army of puppeteers trying to guide him, and he felt disoriented, adrift. The only way to ground himself was to resist the pull of anyone's expectations and answer only to Zayn. He'd spent ﬁve years taking direction and had become allergic to it.

There are plenty of clichéd expressions about how toxic and stiﬂing freedom can be, and Zayn experienced many of them when he went solo. "I didn't really, like, make any friends from the band. I just didn't do it. It's not something that I'm afraid to say. I deﬁnitely have issues trusting people," he says. When he was living in Los Angeles, aimless, he fell in with a crowd of industry people: "Producers, musicians, tailors, stylists, managers. Them kind of things," he says. "It got too crazy. I just got too much into the party scene. Just going out all the time. And I was too distracted." So he left L.A. permanently and moved to New York earlier this year as a way to bring himself back down to earth.

Running a bit further, he recently bought a farm in rural Pennsylvania on the advice of Yolanda Hadid, who also has a farm there. The farm? "Cool." The state of Pennsylvania? "Cool." If you haven't picked up on it for yourself yet, Zayn loves the word "cool"; he loves it so much that he uses it more than 43 times over the course of our conversation. And now that Zayn likes to go to his farm and visit the Hadids, he and Gigi even have a horse together, named Cool. He's just getting things going on the farm, but already there are crops of cherries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. He likes to ride his ATVs. Sometimes he and Gigi will go at the same time, and she'll ride a horse, like Cool, while he watches.

Zayn has a habit of speaking in a conditioned state of detachment, responding in friendly but anodyne one-liners. Still, even someone who willfully projects this kind of cool two-dimensionalism can get irked from being flattened all the time by those around him. I catch myself flattening him, even when he's right in front of me. When I bring up the deceased Lil Peep, with whom he shared a manager, I say that it's a shame they never met—they seem like kindred spirits who could have made a great song together, or at least bonded over tattoos.

Zayn begins to laugh. "I'm not just going to be friends [with people] because we've both got tattoos. Loads of people come up to me and they're like, 'Yo, I got tattoos, you got tattoos. Let's be friends.' And I'm like… 'We're not just going to be friends because we've both got tattoos.'

"There's a bit more depth to me than that," he says, admonishing me.

One topic that will draw out this aforementioned depth is, unexpectedly, America. Despite the fact that he is living in a country under a leader that is exceptionally hostile to immigrants, the fantasy of America as a come-one, come-all melting pot is alive and well in Zayn's mind. He says he'd vote for Oprah if she ran for office because he likes her "ideologies about the world" and she's a "badass businesswoman."

"The UK is like, Fuck you, you're successful. That's not a nice attitude to have," he says. "You come to America, you're a bit shocked at first: Are these people being genuine? Are they really interested in me? Do they want to have a conversation? But they do! And that's a really nice thing. And I feel like it's misrepresented across the globe. For the kind of country it is, because everybody supports, no matter what color, what gender, what sexuality, what class—none of that matters here. People genuinely want to know you for who you are. And that's how America should be represented across the world."

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Maybe you should run for office, I say.

"Maybe. It'd be cool. I feel like it's a beautiful place. [Because of the current political climate,] people are expressing how they really feel about where they come from and their heritage and their backgrounds. They're all mixed. To be American, you are mixed.

"So that's how I feel about it—it's a beautiful place, and it's a beautiful time to be alive."

Another unlikely topic that will break Zayn out of his default conversational mode and get him talking in jolting, paragraphs-long monologues: the paparazzi. The paparazzi who have been trailing him for years and, recently, every time he sets foot near Gigi's NoHo apartment, feeding the endless tabloid speculation about the state of their relationship. The paps used to piss Zayn off, until he realized their utility.

"That's my promo," he says. "I come outside, they take photos." He gets to quietly remind people that he exists—and gets photographed looking like the second coming of Johnny Depp, leaving the apartment of one of the most gorgeous women in the world—without doing a thing. "They stay outside and do all the work!" he says. "You can get pissed off about it and be like, 'Yo, this is a hindrance on my life.' Or you can use it for your own beneﬁt and be like, 'Well, if they're going to take the photos, then let them.' You've gotta earn your dollar, and I've gotta earn mine."

Which is to say that just because Zayn loathes the cornball industry churn doesn't mean he needs to surrender his relevance. Zayn represents an era in which underground cool and mass-market, Calabasian-style popularity have collapsed into one another. He operates on a plane where celebrity is predicated chieﬂy on relevance and intrigue, and Zayn—with his equally illustrious girlfriend, his brooding glare, and his following of millions—has about as much relevance and intrigue as anybody. He is both a casualty and a beneﬁciary of this uniquely modern form of celebrity. In running from his stardom, he's only fueling it.

I suppose now is the time to dispense with the rest of the intel I gleaned from Zayn about his relationship with Gigi Hadid, which was a less sensitive subject than I had anticipated. The two met at the end of 2015 at a party—which "pah-y," Zayn will not disclose, but suffice it to say it was a "cool pah-y"—and just days later, Zayn learned she'd broken up with Joe Jonas. He reached out to her and asked her to dinner at the Bowery Hotel. And thus was born a couple that will go down in history as one of the most iconic and Zeitgeisty pairings of all time, a couple whose images I will show my grandchildren to prove that the world was better in my day. All of the gossip about their relationship being an opportunistic setup by their respective management is bullshit, Zayn says: "If a relationship is for your career, you can fucking walk out the door. No way. See you later."

Despite the dramatic announcement of their split a couple of months ago, Zayn and Gigi are very much still close, as evidenced by myriad photos of him leaving her apartment or kissing her on the street. Zayn speaks about Gigi in a purely misty-eyed, worshipful tone that telegraphs he may be atoning for something. "I'm really thankful that I met her," he says. He uses the term "we" in the present tense quite a bit: "We go to the farm." "We have horses." The time he actually rode a horse with Gigi, he says, "I looked like a complete idiot and she looked like a complete professional.… We're still really good friends, and we're still in contact," he says. "No bad blood." He laughs. "…Taylor Swift.

"We're adults. We don't need to put a label on it, make it something for people's expectations." To hear Zayn tell it, Gigi is the hyper-organized, clear-headed, and positive counterweight to his disposition, which can dip into a vacant or negative state. She helped him reset his attitude when he was releasing his ﬁrst solo album, partying too hard. "I had a very negative outlook on things. That might have been adolescence or testosterone or whatever the fuck was running through my body at the time," he says. "She's helped me to look at things from a positive angle."

As Zayn heads into his new album cycle, Gigi has been a font of support and organizational heft. He says she's especially good with dates, which I mishear as "good with debts."

She's good with debts? You're in debt?

"No, no. Dates. She doesn't handle my ﬁnances yet," he says. "We'll get to that eventually."

When Zayn Malik went solo, he dropped his last name. The mononymic "Zayn" took on a potency and directness that enabled him to break free from the chains of boy-band drudgery and lameness. Zayn: It's a single syllable that conjures a vaporous sexuality and a moodiness that blurs the line between contemplative and blank. You can imagine the black-and-white commercial for L'Eau de Zayn.

In the years since he dropped his last name, the word "Zayn" has also become, to insiders, an equally potent verb. To "Zayn" means to be within someone's reach one moment and then completely disappear the next without any explanation. Poof! To be "Zayned" is to witness a French exit so aggressive that it almost has a supernatural quality. I know this because it happened to me.

We emerged from the ship's galley, and as I prepared to launch into more conversation, he asked Carolina where he could ﬁnd the toilets. She pointed him toward a porta-potty on dry land, and Taryn wordlessly followed behind him, obviously accustomed to this ritual. Before I could get my bearings, he was zipping off into the parking lot adjacent to the tanker, no doubt scurrying home to his fortress of solitude and cigarette smoke in SoHo. I'd been Zayned.

We were supposed to hang out the following week, and I patiently waited for him to reach out. But I knew that he never would. And much as I'd like to be the exception to the Laws of Zayn's Nature, I get it. Who among us has never fantasized about blowing off pesky professional obligations we deem useless? Zayn—driven by a spirit that is part self-destruction, part self-preservation, part youthful punk contrarianism—actually has the balls to live that fantasy. It's self-absorbed, immature, and unprofessional. I'd be offended if I didn't think it was so fucking cool.

Carrie Battan is a staff writer for 'The New Yorker' and a contributor to 'GQ'.

An abridged version of this story appeared in the July 2018 issue.

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