It Is Trish

Hello!  It’s me, Tricia, your Too-Old-For-This escort into the wonderful and horrifying world of One Direction!  You may remember me from the last time I broke down and indulged my inner tweenager by writing a 1D Manifesto (it is still one of my favorite posts that I’ve ever written).  Since then, a lot has happened:  Zayn left the band, Louis became an almost-father, they announced that they’re going on a break (which might actually be a break up), and today they released their fifth album.

Now, I’ve always freely admitted that first and foremost, I’m into their pretty faces.  Look at these faces!

With every album released, I listen and love with the fondness of someone supporting their cute fictional boyfriend(s).  Their music isn’t hard to listen to, and there are always a couple songs that I completely adore.  But their sound is not my go-to musical choice.  However…when I started listening to Made in the A.M. I found myself loving the entire thing.

Admittedly, the objective part of my brain is broken.  Beautiful men do that to me.  I have no confidence in my opinions where One Direction is concerned.  I KNOW that they’ve musically matured since “That’s What Makes You Beautiful,” but there’s still some elitist part of me that doesn’t want to admit the truth:

I REALLY LOVE THEIR MUSIC.  There, I said it.  Let the flailing commence.  

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Reaction to Made in the A.M. songs:

“Hey Angel”
Okay, maybe we won’t flail yet.  This song does nothing for me – it’s bland, ambiguous, and I’ve already forgotten everything about it.

“Drag Me Down”
Now THIS is what I’m talking about.  I ADORE THIS SONG.  It’s been on the radio for a while, and never once have I listened to it without aggressively head banging and screaming into oncoming traffic.  If I worked out, this would be on my workout playlist on repeat.

“Perfect”
This is the song for semi-jerky guys who are like, “Why isn’t a one night stand enough for you?” and you think, “Ugh, how dare you not want to love me every day of your life?  But also….you make a compelling point.  And your face is REALLY pretty.  Maybe we can just make out a little bit.”

“Infinity”
I want to listen to this while stargazing.  It’s so catchy!  “I know it would feel like infinitay…infinitay…infinitay!”  One of the best parts of singing along with One Direction is pretending you have a British accent.  Infinitay!

“End of the Day”
I LOVE THIS ONE.  It’s got such a fun beat.

All I know at the end of the day is you want what you want
And you say what you say
And you’ll follow your heart even though it’ll break
Sometimes

Although I’ve got to admit, when they start saying that heartbreak is like being possessed or having the flu, I’m just rolling my eyes.

“If I Could Fly”
Ugh, Harry.  If he sang this at me, I don’t think I would be human anymore?  Just a puddle of heart-eyes.  This ballad is designed to convince millions of girls (and some boys) that these Superstars care about ME because I KNOW them, and you know what?  I am totally happy to live in that delusion.

“Long Way Down”
I think I like this album so much because it’s a lot more stripped down than their others.  This song is fine, but nothing special, hence why my brain veered into analyzing the album as a whole.

“Never Enough”
Hahaha, this song!  Every time it starts, my face crumples up in disgust.  What even is happening!?  WHY ARE THEY WEIRDLY GRUNTING “a-oo-ah!”???  But then the chorus kicks in, and I’m totally won over.  I don’t know how they managed to create something that is so proportionally repellant and attractive.

“Olivia”
Um, this reminds me SO MUCH of Vampire Weekend, and trust me when I say that is a HUGE compliment.  I really, really love it.  It might be my favorite song on the album, actually.  Imma put up a video of it.  I’m not ashamed of liking this song even the tiniest bit.

“What a Feeling”
Mmm, this one is fine.  It’s a nice background song, but nothing about it really snags my attention.

“Love You Goodbye”
Oh, excuse me, I just got swept up in the sadness of breakups and goodbyes.  I fell under their spell!!  This is an excellent Hurt Feelings song, with all the confusion and desperation of being dumped.

“I Want to Write You a Song”
This one is so cute!!  [Editor’s note:  Please notice that the longer I listen to this album, the less coherent my thoughts are, and the more punctuation I use.]  AND this one has a lot of Noticable Louis.  I adore his scratchy high voice.  It’s so plaintive and heartbreaking.

Everything I need I get from you
Givin’ back is all I wanna do

One Direction:  Giving girls unrealistic expectations of love since 2010.  OH WELL, who needs reality anyway?

“History”
Man, I am totally digging this acoustic guitar driven stuff.  I really think I could play this in my car and get my fellow passengers jamming out before revealing that HaHA! They are enjoying English-Irish Boy Band One Direction!  MWAHAHAHA.  I live to trick people into realizing they are less cultured than they want to be.

“Temporary Fix”
Hahaha, this is “Perfect” remixed, only this time the guy is even more sneaky: “Oh, YOU need a distraction?  I mean, if it’ll help YOU, I guess I’ll let you use my body for a night.  But just like, because YOU need it.  I am ambivalent about this.”

“Walking in the Wind”
YES.  YES.  I love this one!  AH. I like it!!  I don’t have….any other thoughts than that.  I’m gonna share this one too!  Oh, hm.  I guess because it’s an extra track on the Deluxe Album, it’s not available as a YouTube video.  Sad.  For you.  Not for me, I’ve got it on my phone!

“Wolves”
This one’s fun!  It’s not like, super winning me over in any unusual way, but I’m enjoying it.

“A.M.”
Won’t I stay ’til the A.M.?  OH ALL RIGHT.  If you, International Boy Band One Direction, want to stay up all night talking, I GUESS I’ll do it.  No, but really, this is a sweet song.  A+ for conveying nostalgia and longing.  And for including the lyrics “talking out of our asses.”

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Have you listened to Made in the A.M.?  What’d you think?