![]() But that isn’t to say they aren’t good in their own right. It sounds like someone figured out what worked best from Up All Nightand they churned out 17 tracks using a magic formula with a dash of added maturity. On the whole, the tracks on this album are what you would expect from a band like One Direction: they play to the band’s strengths and don’t get too adventurous. One Direction on the set of “Little Things,” their second single off ‘Take Me Home’. Do I think these songs completely save the album? Maybe not for some people, but for me they do. These songs, especially “Nobody Cares” and “Still The One,” do a lot to bring this album back from its spiral into mediocrity. With the Yearbook Edition, there are four songs in addition to the thirteen on the original album. Switching up the tempo or possibly building into “Live While We’re Young” with some more downbeat songs would have set the pacing better for the overall album. I think the arrangement of this album has a lot to do with this problem-it’s completely frontloaded. They’re not complete duds, it’s just that the songs in the middle of this album are low- to mid-tempo so they don’t compare to the opening songs. The album starts off strong with One Direction’s first hit, “ Live While We’re Young,” then another upbeat dance song, “Kiss You,” and their second single, “ Little Things.” It would have been a great set up to a high-energy album, but the next group of songs falls a little flat. One Direction released their video for “Live While We’re Young” in late September. That was when I knew: I was a goner I had fallen back into my boy band ways. But the day came when I realized I knew all their names and I was singing about my life to the tune of their songs. It was okay to love them ironically, blaming “the suspenders one” and “the blonde one” for being so adorable. For me, it started with them popping up on my Tumblr dashboard, then in news articles, and then I watched them perform on Saturday Night Live. ![]() Those UK boys from the X Factor sort of snuck up on all of us. Then Big Time Rush and The Wanted released albums on either sides of the pond in early 2010. In recent years, the boy band has made a comeback with the Jonas Brothers leading the charge into the late 2000’s. This new life has sophisticated music with more mature themes than “baby, I want you back” and a wider vocabulary to boot. But you grew out of it right? Maybe it was a gradual shift in music taste, or the day you took down all those posters and magazine rip-outs from you walls, or even a conscious decision to “grow up.” Somewhere along the way you discovered Good Charlotte, Brand New, Bright Eyes, or whatever gateway band to a life after knowing Justin Timberlake’s favorite number. No matter your favorite-whether they were older: New Kids on the Block, The Jackson 5, Menudo or huge: ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men or slightly less popular: Hanson, 98 Degrees, LFO, O-Town-you probably went through that boy band phase. Photo courtesy of Rolling Stone.Īll of us 20-somethings had that phase. ![]() Huffington Post called ‘N Sync’s “No Strings Attached” the best album of the 2000-2009 decade.
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