Every Single Album - ‘Four’ | Every Single Album: One Direction

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

It’s One Direction’s final album as a band of five, and arguably their best so far. Nora and Nathan talk about some of the big stadium songs on this album, including “Steal My Girl” and “Stockholm Syndrome” (1:00), the marked improvement in their singing voices from when they first started (55:07), and how the boys and the fans handled Zayn leaving the band (1:12:10). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Matt Bellany, founding partner of Puck News, and I'm covering the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. With my new show, The Town, I'm going to take you inside Hollywood with exclusive insight on what people in show business are actually talking about. Multiple times a week, I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know, journalists, insiders, all of whom can break down the hottest topics in entertainment to tell you what's really going on. Listen now. Hello, and welcome to every single album, One Direction. I'm Nora Princeati. I am here, as always, with Nathan Hubbard. And we are going to talk about One Directions fourth album, titled Four. Very Outside the Box title choice on this one. This album was released in November of 2014. Nathan, tell me what's going on with our guys right about that time. Well, they're in the next stratosphere of artists. I mean, this thing is going to number one. all of their first four albums have gone to number one.

They're the only group to do this. And the only artists to do this other than one direction are Britney Freakins Spears, DMX, X going to give it to you. Wait for you to get it on your own. X going to deliver to you. And Beyonce.

I mean, this is unprecedented success. They're number one on the iTunes chart in 67 countries. They've sold half a billion dollars worth of tickets. They're the biggest band in the world. And when I stop wanting them, I call them a band, but when I stop wanting them to be a band and start appreciating them as a movement,

it makes it a lot easier to digest what's going on here. It seems like in this moment it's sort of hard for people to figure out exactly what the entity known as One Direction is and is supposed to be. Because I was going through some reviews. And so this album comes out in, 2014, it's one of the best-selling albums of 2014 joining Taylor Swift's

1989. And I'll write your name. The Frozen soundtrack. Let it go. Let it go. Ed Sheeran's Multiply. Darling, I will be loving you to a 17.

Hold plays ghost stories. Because you're a sky. Because you're a sky. Sam Smith's in the Lonely Hour and One Direction. Sam Smith cleans up. Yeah, with that album. Particularly at the Grammys. So there's not a lot of rock and roll on there. No.

Right? But then you've got Billboard calling them the, quote, world's greatest classic rock band that doesn't really play instruments and wasn't alive in the 1980s. There's some freezing cold reviews. on this album. Well, and I think part of it is because this is simultaneously

the biggest band in the world, right? Or, you know, 1A, 1B with cold play, maybe if you want to make that argument. But no one can quite figure out exactly what they're supposed to be. Yeah. Rolling Stone has the most freezing cold take by saying,

if any of these guys harbor secret dreams of going solo or becoming an actor or a fashion exec, they've stayed secret. Oops. Yeah, that didn't hold up very well. Billboard shits on Stockholm syndrome. Like there's a lot of, they are still pigeonholed, right?

There is all this hysteria. It's going so fast. The pace is so quick that they're being pigeonholed as just this boy band, and it feels like the reviewers are maybe resentful of the attention and the moment of explosion that's happening in the fan base. And they can't see the forest for the trees, which is that this. album is a major step forward from where they started in the quality of the singing, the quality,

the performance, the quality of the songwriting. And at the same time as they're doing what I'm going to argue is their best work yet and is an album that I just absolutely love so much. Like so many of these songs are just absolutely dynamite to me. Listen to you. Well, there's real conflict between there's sort of this mainstream music press and people who deal in kind of traditional signifiers of authenticity and value and things like Grammy nominations and all of that. And that group doesn't quite get them. Right. Doesn't quite get how far they've come, how much development there's been, the real quality in these songs and in the songwriting. The fans know that. And the fans are the ones who love them dearly

understand how much of value there is here and how much they have to offer, but then develop sort of a fervency that comes off of that, that both can be difficult to harness and can result in some pretty crazy mob scenes. And then also is so zealous in their support of these guys that the pace that they're operating at just to meet the demand is insane. because this is around the time when we start to really see the cracks that we're forming

in their family in just a couple months. This is it. Right. Right. And, you know, this year, this November, so right around the time that this album comes out,

they're in Australia, they're at an awards show, and Liam gets videotaped walking a rope line of fans taking selfies. And every time he goes to take a selfie with a fan, he smiles, just a thousand-watt smile, pops up on his fans.

face. But the second he puts the phone down, it just falls off his face and he looks absolutely miserable and just exhausted. There are already a bunch of rumors about Zane. They're getting asked on red carpets if Zane is going to leave. They did a release event with the Today Show and they did a performance and gross, Matt Lauer asked them during the segment because, yeah, geez. Zane didn't show up. And, And so Matt Lauer just asks them on stage in front of a live audience if it's because he has a substance abuse issue. But there's obviously a lot of concern. A lot of fans been tweeting overnight.

There's been a lot of action on social media about him. Is it something more serious than just a minor illness? There have been rumors of substance abuse. What's going on? No, he's just got a stomach. He's okay. He's just, he's just at home. He just needs to have to rest.

He's okay. There's all this reporting that they're taking separate cars places, which doesn't seem like a big deal just particularly because of the pace at which they were operating, but was apparently something that caused a lot of commentary. Yeah, that happens with every band, just, you know, they take separate cars. Like, when else are you going to make a private phone call? It just seems like things have escalated to the point where they're not really in control of what's going on around them. There's a disparity between who the fan base wants them to be and who they are. There's this essay written by Elena Massey called The Absolute Necessity of One Direction. And

In it, she talks about how boy bands, like, are a profound social good because they present sort of masculinity in a gentle way that isn't traditionally encouraged in young men. But it allows the fan base that sort of classic boy band structure of the cute one, Harry Stiles, the mysterious one, Zane, the funny one, and Nile. Like, it lets fans sort of project and fantasize about which kind of guy they'd like to be, and they can switch allegiances and all that. It's this happy alternate reality called the Kingdom of the Girl,

where young women are totally in power, they're being respected, they're being celebrated, they're being adored, which is a wonderful thing, except when that fantasy and that projection becomes something that is different

than what those individuals actually are, and they start to have to live up to some image instead of what's actually happening. And I think that Liam, you know, ropline walk is a great example of what was going on.

but there's a major other part that is sort of disconnecting with the fan base and the guys too, right, Nora? Right, well, which starts from a similar impulse of either seeing yourself in these people that you idolize or having that safe space to project as a young woman and, you know, be able to think through those types of feelings without real world consequences, right? And that's so, I mean, resonant with me. And so I think healthy and wonderful. And there is that real good to boy bands and to acts that have a lot of young female fans, especially, and create healthy, wonderful, happy spaces.

But one of the areas where there's a lot of projection going on with One Direction in this moment is there's a ton of fan fiction, often pretty sexually explicit fan fiction about these guys. and then the Larry Stylinson conspiracy takes off. And that's a thing that, you know, just to be up front about it, you and I don't love talking about, even though it's not like we're not aware, it's a huge thing with a section of the fan base. My number one thing is I just don't really want to be in a space where we're sort of trafficking in conspiracy theories

about gay relationships. That to me is just sort of let's not go there territory, just because there's sort of a long and ugly history of that happening in ways that create a connection in our society between homosexual relationships and sneaking around, hiding bad things. And that's a little bit even sort of bigger than the fact that this made, at the very least,

Louis very uncomfortable. Harry's never really talked about it, But it made Louis very upset, and it's something that other members of the band have talked about in terms of just feeling like they had to regulate their behavior. Yeah, it's the first thing Zane said in his first interview. When after he breaks up or leaves the band, he says, like, explicitly, there's no secret relationships going on with any of the band members. It's not funny. And it still continues to be quite hard for them. They won't naturally put their arm around each other because they're conscious of this thing that's going on.

which is not even true. They won't do that natural behavior. Which, like, Zane had a lot to get off his chest. The fact that he felt like he needed to go to bat for that was interesting. It doesn't, you know, undercut the theory, but it does show you the amount of pressure and how that fan chatter and buzz about everything was piercing that bubble. They were hearing it and they're human beings.

Right. And the tough thing is that part of those rumors and part of those concerns, and part of those conspiracy theories comes from that same or at least similar desire for someone to see themselves in members of the band and to be able to have that type of relationship. And they had done a great job of creating a safe space

particularly for LGBT fans. And that work was real and it was significant. And it really, really mattered. It is sort of amazing that as we see them going more heavily musically into sort of rock and roll territory.

This is, if we're going to call them a huge rock band at this point, this is a huge rock band where you're going to see pride flags all over every single one of their

concerts. That's a site to see. That's really cool. That hasn't happened a whole time if you go further back into history. So there's this tension where the people

who are reviewing their albums with, of course, some exceptions, don't totally get the beating heart of what makes the band the band and what makes their stuff good. The fans really do get it,

but can't be wrangled in certain areas. And underneath it all, there's this situation where these guys are getting better and better and better both musically, just with their instruments,

their voices are getting better and better just from singing every night. And they're this work course to the industry where they can go out and just make a boatload of money every single year by doing a torn an album and a torn an album and a fragrance and a toothpaste and a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Do we really need four perfumes? The eternal question.

But what I think is amazing about this album is that somehow within all that, and it's not that it doesn't make an impact, but within all of that, you still come away from hearing this record feeling like oh wow they are really starting to spread their wings as musicians here and as song crafters and as a group of guys

who to varying degrees we imagine Zane was probably less happy with where the sound was going than some of the others but they were having their own influence on what they wanted this thing to sound like and it sounds awesome Nora

steal my girl It fucking owns everything. It's awesome. It's awesome. I was so excited to talk to you about this dog because I know you love it so much. Let's acknowledge, first right off the bat. The Haley Williams shade?

Oh, that's true. I was going to say that the piano intro is straight from Faithfully by Journey. Oh, it's worse than that. So Haley Williams was dating the newfound Glory guy. And when this song came out, she threw a dart into the heart of one direction by saying, no, no, this piano intro sounds exactly like it's not your fault by Newfound Glory, which is a song that came out in 2006. And she's kind of right. She's kind of right. Yeah, but then the great irony of that

is that then that song's intro also sounds like faithfully by Journey. Fine. Yeah. Listen, great. They're all plucking from the past, and that is the broader point, which is we're at the edge of the possible range of putting chords together in the traditional 1-4-5 rock format. Like, we're done. It's been done before. Like, it is time to transition into sort of a new phase of music if at the end of the day you're worried about replicating something in the past. mathematically there just aren't enough combinations that work for the human ear. So yeah, we're in totally recycled music territory.

And what's happening is people are iterating sonically using computers and the ability to create sounds that are digitally created and produced. And then a bit lyrically as people try to reflect what's happening in the times. That's not necessarily what's happening in One Direction songs. But they are, this song, I mean, they are just in full,

Fuck yeah, we are huge. We're doing whatever the fuck we want to do mode on this song. The video for this thing is insane. It's insane. Today, we're going to take it to a new level. We've come to the most barren place on earth to create. Today, we bring life to the desert. I mean, you got Danny DeVito.

They went full Michael Jackson and work with. with a chimp. They got balloons that they're just wildly polluting in the desert. They're marching bands. How did they get Danny DeVito in this thing? Honestly, somebody helped me understand. This is like the peak of their powers as far as I'm

concerned. It's like, it's like all the people that Taylor brought out on the 1989 tour. All in one video. That's them getting Danny DeVito. Yeah. Yes. She'd had a whole petting zoo parade down the catwalk there. I mean, this thing, look, this song goes to 13, the Billboard Hot 100.

It does great. I think it's also their biggest song. You can argue with me on that. I would, no, I agree with that. I do agree with that. This song,

I mean, when Zane hits the high part, the she belongs to me, like, it just, I am deceased. This song rules. I totally agree with you. And it also,

so I think it gets to 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's stuck on the chart for 18 weeks, too. Like, it had some staying power. It was second on the set list for most of the tour. Usually, I think they opened with clouds, which is kind of like scene setty. Help me understand. I think it's sort of like a scene setter thing. I mean, I saw this, but like, what is it?

Yeah. Because you know what? It's like the opener. It's like state of grace or holy ground. Yeah, I actually think those are really good comps. Because we talked about how their voices have improved so much. I also think the production on this album is a step forward and is really, really good. And one of the things that I think is really good about it is that they've gotten that kind of the Verve Oasis Light quality really spot on where they can make songs just sound massive.

Yeah. These are stadium songs. Right. They're total stadium songs. And the two Taylor songs that you just mentioned, I think one of the main purposes that they serve is you can just ratchet them up in a way where they are big songs. And spaces. Who's going to be the first to say good? Clouds.

Ready to run. I like all those songs a lot. Do I think they are their best work on this album? No. But I think there's something really satisfying about just feeling like you are in hundreds of thousands of square feet of space. Yeah. Hearing music. Ready to run just feels me to me.

This feels like the first time that they've put a song in the first four that doesn't totally grab you. Do you feel that way about this song? Was there something special that I missed? No, I actually kind of agree with you. I like the song, to be clear. It's fine, but it's just like... This, I think we'd started to see some of this a little bit before this album cycle. I mean, certainly you feel a way about I should have kissed you.

That would indicate it was a mistake to have that as a bonus track and not on the album. And to never play it. And to never play it. Guys, can we just get back together just to play that song? I mean, come on. You don't have to do anything else. Can you imagine? All right.

Yes. James Gordon. I imagine this all the time. It's a great song. God. I'm just going to let that hang there for a little bit. Stop it. Stop it.

But like, shouldn't night changes have been second? Well, so hold on. Hold on. Maybe. Because I do backflips for that song. Yeah. Don't worry. I'm going to tell you a whole lot about it.

Okay, okay. This album, this is part of what I'm getting out when I say that, yes, there were ways in which the fan base was getting a little bit out of control here. There were also ways in which the fan base understood them better than even sometimes I think they and their own management did. Okay. Because it's not so much like a sequencing issue, but you're right that I am interested in how they identified the best songs and the songs that were going to do really,

really well on this album. Because I don't think that it was necessarily... spot on. There are some songs that I think are incredibly strong that are pretty far down on the track list. Like fans knew no control was a good one. So, yes, that would be the primary example of that. We're definitely going to talk about that. I do think that part of that is that this is just a more consistently strong album than anything that they've ever done. I think this is top to bottom best work. And do you think it's because

Bonetta and John Ryan and Jamie Scott, at least one of them were writing and producing on every track. Like, is that why it feels most cohesive? That's probably why it feels most cohesive. I don't know if that... And I think that's probably part of what speaks to the overall quality, I think, being a bit better. I also think that that's the guys getting better.

Okay. Would be the main driver of that. And that's not really to give them too much credit. It's just more that they started in a place where, they were barely professionals, right? Like, all of a sudden, they were just doing this thing that was so massively different than anything they'd ever done before. And I do think that by this album, you start to see where they've really, really caught up.

When we talked about Midnight Memories, we talked about Liam and Louie kind of catching up as songwriters. Somebody whose name rhymes with Shmeri Shmiles, I think has that experience on this album. Oh, yeah. we'll get there. Because... Okay. Well, because of Stockholm syndrome.

For a couple of reasons. We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. I love this album. Okay. Okay. To close the loop on ready to run.

I agree with you that I think it can be a little meh. I think it's a good song. It is kind of a repurposing of story of my life. there's a cool sort of pitch drop at the end of the second verse, which I find funny because it's interesting to see on this album where they choose to use a very modern, you need a computer for this production trick. Overall, though, I do think that

like the guitars on this album are really, really good. And there's a thing with the electric guitar on Ready to Run where it's very far up in the mix and then towards the end it just fades out. It's another example of something that I think makes the song just feel huge. So I get it. I'm with you that I would have chosen a different song for track two. What should have been there?

Okay. Well, let me give you what for my money is the best song on this album, which is Night Changes. which is a song that just... Yeah. I mean, that should have been second. Do you think it should have... So here's the argument that I can hear.

It's seven. I don't know. I just do not know. It's a very simple song. Maybe that's why. They all get a writing. It's great. Those three chords

under just how fast the night changes. Just how fast the night changes. Changes Give me unrelenting chills. It's not even really the key change. Key change is great. What's the personal experience

that you had with this song? Did it hit you at a time in your life? Or do you just think that musically there's something that moves you about it? It has honest to God never not hit me. There's a nostalgia there. I have thought about my parents listening to this song.

I have thought about boys listening to this song. I have thought about school. I have thought about my friend. Like, I will love this song for the rest of my life. It is, I just think it is so sweet, which does not sound like the biggest, most amazing word with which to describe a piece of music that you love. But it, like, makes me want to just snuggle it close to my chest and never let go of the song. Okay.

Well, why did they give the cigarette line? First of all, why did they put it in? but secondly, why did they give it to Louis? He's waiting. Hards for a cigarette. I mean, Louis, I... Louis has a little bit of edge.

I think if they're going to... If they're going to give... Coming off the smoking video. If the line is going to be in there. Yeah. By the way... Shouldn't Zane have had it? Fair. That's fair.

I mean, look, if... On illusion, they ask Nile to saying, you can tie me up in chains. You can tie me up and change You can throw away the key But there's no trap doors I'm not gonna leave Which I'm not sure is a sentence

That Nile has ever had need to say Nile always gets the shit We'll talk about this later They always make Nile sing the bad stuff I don't know why They're like oh let's give it to Puck Like it's fine But this song

This song is great And I look I like that they all get a writing credit it makes me wonder if somebody in their camp missed it. It's really the first crack in the, we know what these manufactured hits are going to do to people and we know what's going to resonate, resume that they've built up through the previous three albums

where you just trust, they know what's going to work and the sequence is spot on with one exception, of course being I should have kissed you. Although I still think maybe, I don't know. They did night changes on Saturday Night Live. Now they also did ready to run. So we're keeping track two in place there.

But I think they understood at some point that this was a big song. There are some early, well, yeah, it's a very big song. There are some very early recordings of Steel My Girl, like right when they came together. So this is a song that had been hanging around for a while. I just think the way that the tempo that they picked is great. I haven't heard earlier recordings of night changes. I haven't found them anywhere. So this one does authentically for me feel like something that's a little bit more mature and a little bit more plaintive. And for me, you know, we've talked about the fact that their only free time was basically between midnight and 6 a.m. probably. And so there's something really

beautiful about the observations of what it's like to be awake and what it's like to live in those dark moments of the morning when there's very few souls that are that are actually stirring. It's a very comforting song, I think. So this is your favorite song on the album? It is. There's a lot of contenders. There really are. Well, so take me through it. Like, what is close? Is there anything else that's in contention for you. So I want to be clear, I know that this is my favorite song on this album.

This might be my favorite One Direction song. It is probably my favorite one direction song. Okay, that's how I feel about Steal My Girl. The other contenders are Steal My Girl.

Where do Broken Hearts go? Ah. A hairy song. A Harry song. No control. And fireproof. Yeah, we're totally aligned on what could be... I like Fool's Gold.

I like it. Oh, interesting. I don't love it. I don't mind it at all, but it's not... Nile ends up covering this song. When he goes out on tour. So there's something about that for me that I like. I don't know.

I like the writing on it. I like the writing on it. You know, it's funny. It reminds me a little bit. of when we talk about how important back to December is for Taylor because it's the first time she takes responsibility. Okay.

There's a self-awareness to the lyrics in this song. Yes, I think that's what I like to. Like, the girl is kind of the troublemaker, but they know it and they do it anyway. Yeah. It's a great point. I'm the first to admit that I'm reckless. I get lost in you.

beauty and I can see There's maturity in there that I don't think we've typically always seen. That's another one that pulls back really dramatically before it gets super huge again at the end. And I appreciate that too.

I get a little snoozy on the verses. Okay. I'm with you on that. But we're aligned on everything except one. I think Stockholm Syndrome is the second or third best album or song on this album. This song kicks ass.

So I should, you know what, that song totally kicks ass. And Harry wrote it. I mean, this is a transformational song for me. That's where I'm like, whoa, Harry, here it comes. Like, I can see the roots of his solo work here in this song. I love it. Because it's about a nympho, like a nympho? Intimacy, shall we say?

He said, this song is more about like a nympho. This is more about, like, a nympho. This was not about like an info. Stuff just got serious. Cool. Things just got sourced in there. Yeah, they did. It is hot.

Or any of the songs about any of the songs. Here he also goes on to describe his albums as about having sex and being sad. Yeah. It sounds a little bit like Phoenix, but I love this Stockholm Syndrome song. I just think as we talk about the sequence of things, of the best songs, this is the first album that feels a little bit out of order. Wait. And yet.

Well, this is your Phoenix comp. Stockholm Syndrome sounds like everybody wants to roll the world. Okay, fine. We've heard everybody wants to rule the world in a number of songs before. I think my point is that like there's some songs in between here that are misses. I just don't mind it because for the first time, the scattering of songs with one exception, and that is that I think ready to run feels out of place. But the scattering of good songs,

it makes it feel more like a journey, like an album. Instead of, hey, we knew these four songs were going to be the singles, and then we took the boys in the hotel room with mattresses and microphones and recorded some filler shit to flesh out the album. This one feels like a journey. It keeps punching. It totally keeps punching. I mean, even if like 18, it's like, good God,

can we stop writing with Ed Sheeran, please? Is he like an unofficial member of this group or something? I don't know. It has major Castle on the Hill vibes. Had my first kiss on Friday night. I don't reckon that I did it right. It's fine, but like, it's Ed. Like, what, come on.

So, so we get through 18. I mean, do you feel differently about 18? No. So, spoiler. alert here. Yeah. I don't want to cut anything on this album.

I really don't. You can make me if I have to. Oh, you just wait. I don't really want to. And true to form 18 is not my favorite. The Ed Shearron collab is not my favorite. I do.

There's that little like ascending melody in the chorus on the line that's an all I can do. And it has that like dreamy electric guitar at the end that's really pretty. I can't really be mad at it. And I acknowledge that most people like Ed Sharon a lot more than I tend to. So I don't in my heart of hearts feel the need to cut it. It's not my favorite, certainly. And it does baffle me why he remains such a constant presence when it almost always feels out of place to me.

But, you know, again, other people like Ed Sharon a lot. but I really don't want to cut anything. Okay. Well, we're not quite there yet. But can we talk about fireproof for one sec? Yes, totally. Like, this song was played half as much on tour as Girl Almighty. And first of all, Girl Almighty is obvious child by Paul Simon.

And you will never convince me otherwise. It just lifts it. And it's sitting right there. And I heard that in the album and I start to get upset. But then they take us to Fool's Gold, which is fine. Then we get night changes. Then we get no control. Then we get fireproof.

We're on fire all of a sudden. Space is, all right, it's an Eagles song. It doesn't do much for me. But I like the Eagles harmonies, whatever. Then I get Stockholm Central. I mean, who race? the back part of this album is makes it feel like a real album. But fireproof,

Liam actually sings the high parts better here than Zane does. Yeah, and that ends up, I mean, spoiler alert, but that ends up being very important when suddenly, you know, someone's got a handle story of my life on tour and we've got to DIY this overnight, basically. That ends up being pretty important. Why didn't this get more attention? Do you understand it?

Like, why would they've played this half as much as girl freaking almighty? Well, so Fireproof was the song that they put up on their website as a free download when they announced the name of the album, put the album cover out. So it did have, it did have its moment. Okay. Everything else I don't understand. I adore this song. Okay. I absolutely love it.

It's on playlists for me. Mitzki covered it, which I just absolutely love. Cool as hell. first of all, you know who else loves the Eagles is our guy Nile. So. Yeah, well, I mean, listen, Harry is now managed by Jeffrey Azoff, his father, Irving Azoff, Eagles manager. There's a lot of overlap there. I mean, it's how he met Stevie Nix and Fleetwood Mac. Like, they got their roots in some of that music. And by the way, the Fleetwood Mac Dream's baseline is sort of present in this.

But in a way that, to me, ads, like, there is a little. line somewhere between lifting and making a cool reference, right? And it's actually, you know, it's somebody someday is going to have to figure out a standard that will probably hold as a legal standard when people dispute this stuff, right? Like, the rights battles have heated up. And I'm talking about right now in 2022. It's a little different at this point. But they have heated up so much that at a certain point somebody's going to have to come up with some sort of reasoning for how we decide

what's too far and what is okay when something sounds derivative of something else. Because there's no way to completely avoid it. It just doesn't work that way. There aren't enough combinations of court productions that sound good to the ear. I know, but this is a little bit like the Supreme Court pornography definition. Like, I know it when I see it.

I know it when I hear it in this case. Well, but that's sort of what we're off. Sure. And I'm not saying that they are not guilty of this. I'm just saying that sometimes, like, this is an example where I think the reference is pretty subtle. Yes. And establishing, right. So establishing where it starts to be a bother is difficult.

That is my only point. You know where it starts to be a bother? And this is the song that we absolutely can. and must cut. It's the song Change Your Ticket, which is on the expanded edition. Fair. Because that song,

according to the lead guy, Matt Healy, is quite literally the 1975s girls. Maddie came into the studio to write with them. They were super excited. They played it for him. And he was like, guys,

can we tone down the guitars? But according to Healy, those guitar parts still made it on to some versions of this song. And it just, for me, comes back to lots of pressure in these nine-month cycles

to deliver something. These boys are still developing as artists. They started as cover singers, so they've spent most of their career sort of trying to adopt and take in other people's songs. And every now and then, they just really stepped in it. And it's not even them.

I think it's their production and management team that would listen to this and not think, you know, maybe we shouldn't steal the 1975 song. I wonder why they didn't just cut this. Because it's a bonus track, right? Like, they had all the different international editions. And so sometimes the definitions on that are going to be fuzzy. But this was not, when you count the four bonus tracks that go on what was called the Ultimate Edition,

which was sort of like the standard issue bonus director's cut version of this album. Yeah. There's 16 songs. Yeah. It's not short. They're not lacking for songs to put on this thing. So I don't really understand. It's just about content. I think they just, I don't know. Usually in these cases, they're just trying to tag something on so that a market feels special. So that in Japan, they'll push the album because, or they'll get better sales there because they added a track there, which is fine. It's just, you know, as Matthew Healy, Maddie Healy himself said, like, these are guys. who their job was to get in front of Simon Cowell and sing other people's songs. So like maybe they just don't have that self-awareness bone in their body because they genuinely have passion and enthusiasm for other people's music.

And I think that part of it is very true, right? Like we know how, you know, we're just talking about Stockholm syndrome. We know how Harry feels about Fleetwood Mac. Right? So like why would he not want something that feels like he's doing the thing that he's idolized people for doing before. And here's another, you know, two, these guys are all Geminized or something. I mean, here's another sort of two sides of the same coin. On this album, which you and I are currently definitely saying is our favorite one so far, you have arguably

two of the most well-respected indie sort of rock people in the world, male and Maddie Healy from the 1975, female and Haley Williams from Paramore, throwing darts at songs that they feel like on this album were completely ripped off. And it undermines some of the creative authenticity and work on this album that deserves some credit. Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, I guess I hope people will sort of indulge us in this moment of this conversation

because we were recording this the day after the Grammys, though this episode will post in a bit. It will not be the day after the Grammys at that point. but, you know, Olivia Rodriguez had an okay night, but didn't necessarily clean up in the way that some people expected that she might. Yep. And some of this stuff, I think, is part of that conversation,

including Paramour. Yeah. Right? Where people felt that she wasn't good enough about crediting those who influenced her work or in some cases where bits of music were borrowed and repurposed or maybe not repurposed. Haley Williams, scuttling people.

people's Grammys since 2015. Since 2014. Yeah. That's funny. Well, okay. So listen. That is just to say that it is sort of an ongoing conversation, right? Yeah.

How do you feel about Act My Age? Oh, I think it's fun. I like it a lot. It is fun. The like ragtime piano. I mean, it's totally an Irish folk song ripoff and it's awesome. It's awesome. It's totally cool.

I love it. And look, again, like, not to harp on change your ticket, wouldn't the special Japan packaging edition have felt plenty special with three extra songs instead of four when, like, I like once in a lifetime. I think that song also has that sort of like the verve, dreamy, floaty thing. Not even the bad guys in the dark night could take it all the. The lyrics are a little ridiculous. Nah.

It's something real. Like, that's real content that you're giving people. I don't understand why, like, I get it, the desire to just churn more stuff out and make people feel like it's a bigger deal. But it's not as though they were lacking in extra stuff to put on here. But here's a track that did not make the album that is super fun that they end up closing the show with. So, did not make the original album.

So, again, show. justice for I should have kissed you. But we've now gone through. I can make... Look, Girl Almighty just bothers me. I know a lot of people like it. I could have ejected 18. I definitely sort of feel meh about clouds,

but there's something about it clearly when they're opening the show with it. I love clouds. We're not... It's fine. All right. It can stay... I mean, look, I have this, like...

My conspiracy theory. No, my conspiracy theory is that Zane gets the writing credit on this one, and that maybe they put that up front and center because of what was going on behind the scenes. But whatever. Change your ticket needs to be shot into the moon and Girls by the 1975 is the song that should remain on this point.

That song rules. Yeah. All right. I think I am with you there. I'm a clouds stand. That's fine. I do hear your point about Zane. I think that makes sense,

especially when you consider some of the lyrics, you know, here we go again. It's sort of about this nonstop thing that they've been doing. Okay. Well, I have a sense that as we walk into the most important collaborator category, that you feel differently than me. Because for me, I had Julian Bonetta, I had John Ryan, I had Jamie Scott, because I think that their presence on every single one of these track

in both production and writing gave it some consistency. It just feels more like an album to me. But maybe I'm not crediting the, right people, Nora. Who do you think is their most important collaborator? Well, so your choice is not mine, but I think that's totally valid. It's clear that that's the core group and they're still in place here. I'm going to let you finish. No, I'm serious. I think we need to acknowledge that this is a really, really well-produced album and they found their people. Your choice. I do have a different one, which is I think their most important collaborator here is

their fans. Okay. Particularly for making outside the box. For making no control the song that it needed to be. Yeah. So let's talk about hashtag project no control for a second. Okay. So album comes out. This song was not a single. They're only two singles. Originally, they go out on tour and it's not even on the set list. Right. Fans are upset. I have received so many tweets from your fans about this that I fear if I don't ask you about it, they might kill me. Okay. And so I want to talk to you about your song, no control. I mean, Louis is shining through on this song. Louis is totally shining through on this song.

Louis as a vocalist has never sounded so good. He absolutely murders this song. Okay. And... A lot of sexy talk on this song. Okay. We will get there. We will get there. But so the fans came together. They chose May 17th, 2015, as a DIY release date. And so they all agreed that they were going to download it on mass on that day, push it up the charts as much as possible. And they tweeted, they called radio stations,

they texted radio stations and effectively promoted it as a single on its own. And it's turned into this like kind of legendary, like huge one direction song that a lot of people know and that is really, really important to the fan base. And it to me is the number one example. of the fans understanding something and sort of being able to latch on to something that maybe even the guys didn't quite know

would have the life that it did. You think it was about the song or about Louis? From the fans' perspective or from theirs? Yeah, no, no, from the fans' perspective. I think maybe a little bit. I actually wonder if from the band and management's perspective it wasn't a little bit more about Louis just because they hadn't had a lot of big songs

where Louis vocally took the range. right? Absolutely. If you're looking for a reason why this wouldn't have been, you know, further up the album, promoted in a different way, put on the set list initially, maybe that's one hypothesis. I do think that the innuendo in the lyrics is maybe another one. But I think it's a fantastic song.

I think there was some desire, particularly because by the time that all of this stuff happened, Zane's gone. There's been back and forth between one of Zane's collaborators and Louis on Twitter. Yeah, there's some Twitter. That accuses him of using autotune and not being a good singer. And so there's the desire to center this song where he vocally takes control in a new way. And I think that's part of it. But I think they're right to choose this song.

I think the song absolutely rules. Yeah, it's great. How do you feel about my theory that they might have held it back? because it's a little raunchy, as James Corden pointed out, when the boys visited his set at one point. It's still pretty sensual, but where did the idea of the song come from? Well, we wanted to do something up tempo, didn't we, originally? Certainly up tempo.

So basically, did you wake up in the morning and be like, wow, that... There was a lot of raunchiness in the last album. I mean, the sort of double entendre sexual innuendo is a col. card of this band. So I don't know that it's, I think they missed it. I think they kind of missed it. And I like,

I'm much happier with the narrative that the fan base was like, no, no, this is Louis taking charge for the first time. The song rules, let's make this happen. Why are we listening to Ready to Run?

We can listen to both. Okay. I do think, I mean, yes, like innuendo has certainly been a part of, what they've been offering prior to this moment this is a little more

like this okay okay it's just like an incredibly thinly veiled reference to an erection on this song just very regularly waking up

beside you I'm a lord of gun I can't contain this well but that's our Louis yeah well he's about to become a father for the first time. So there's, it's clearly on his mind. All right, we're moving on. And we get to move on to peak Harry. Nathan, will you share yours with me first?

Yeah. For me, it's the vibrato that has emerged in Harry's voice. I mean, maybe it's the tears on stage in Jakarta after Zane leaves like the sort of open emotion. But I think his voice is now undeniably the most recognizable in the group, it feels the biggest. I felt in the first few albums like they were putting him forward because he was supposedly the cute one or something. And they gave him the closer lines

on a lot of the songs. They gave him a lot of the first verses. But now he has made the biggest leap vocally that I think anyone in the group has made through this time. Maybe Louie, based on what we're hearing, But I really think Harry now is, his voice is ascendant, and it stands out on this album for me. And he's sort of, we talked about this in the last album a little bit, just the seeds of it being planted.

But Harry's a little rock star. Yeah. Hairs to his shoulders. Yeah. He's also like, you watch a lot of old interviews with them and late night stuff. Harry's a bit of a diva. Like, he's doing juice cleanses. He drinks so much water.

Like, they go on James Corden all the time because there's. There's a longstanding relationship there. But there's one where they all go to McDonald's or like in and out or something. I forgot. But they go to a fast food place. And everybody else is like milkshake burger fries, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Harry just goes, can I have an iced tea? Right.

What would we like to eat, boys? Can I get 10 piece nuggets? Ten piece nuggets. I have a big Mac. A big Mac. And an ice tea. And an ice tea. Could I have a sausage, McMuffin with egg, please, with two ash browns?

And then I'll have a chocolate. And he's like playing with his hair constantly. Yeah. When they're on SNL for this album cycle, everybody else is wearing just plain black. And Harry's wearing close to black. Like he fits in with the color scheme. But he's wearing like a silk button down with these sort of red and green,

like velvet kind of paisley-ish detailing. He's got a big hat on with a feather in it. Yeah, you can trace the origins of the feather boa that are going to make their way. Totally. That Boas that are going to make their way into his fashion sense very soon. Totally. Okay. So, but what's peak Harry for you then? So everything that you're saying, I think, makes a ton of sense to me.

I chose where do broken hearts go. Having Harry having written on it. Because it's a great song. It's absolutely one of my favorites. Maybe you would have chosen Stockholm syndrome to make the same point. here. But he ends up co-writing this with Ruth Ann Cunningham, who co-wrote Joe's Too Little Too Late, great song. And we'll go on to co-write slow hands with Nile. And with Teddy Geiger, who eventually writes a bunch of songs for Sean Mendez and also a handful for Nile on Heartbreak

weather, as well as Benetta and their sort of usual cohort. But I just, I, I just, I, adore this song. This is another one where I think the lyrics are starting to get a lot stronger. I think counted all my mistakes and there's only one standing out from the list of these things of the things I've done, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like just that first verse is really, really strong. The other thing I absolutely adore about this song is that an underrated asset that Louis always had is that he sounds the most British when he sings. And so on the outro. He doesn't lose it. accent as much. No, not anywhere near as much.

So on the outro, when they're just sort of like swapping lines back and forth, Louis going, where do broken hearts go is like so great. I just absolutely love it. Look who's got the English accent now. Yeah, I just have a little something called restraint, Nathan. Try to keep it in the can as much as possible. Whatever, whatever. Well, okay, so that's your peak,

then speaking of Louie, like, is that your peak, Louie? No, my peak Louis is just that he absolutely demolishes no control. Yeah, he does demolish no control. He does great there. I, fine, I'll give that one to you.

I mean, what I had was, I actually had the fact that he's becoming a father so young, and that there was some question as to whether Biona Youngworth, like if he was actually with her, when it happened, like, Louis's kind of acting like no control. And that's fine,

but there are a bunch of comments that come out later on about how sensitive he was to the speculation about his sexuality. And I just can't help but wonder if there were some overt and maybe unconscious ways in which he pushed back against that

to be sort of very public with his romantic relationships. And maybe with writing a song like this, right? Exactly. I guess, you know, this... It's all, it all feels driven by maybe the same thing. Yeah, I mean, is that sensitivity or is that just sort of wearing your heart on your sleeve

and telling it like... It's what people love about Louis. It's like some from column A, some from column B. He always tells it like it is. doesn't he? The other thing I love that Louis does is that when they're doing ready to run on SNL, there's a moment where the camera pans to him

and he completely crosses his eyes. And I don't know how he really knew that he was looking directly to camera at that moment, but it's just very funny. It's just a funny guy. He's still keeping it going. You still can see the kernels of the kid in the X-Factor video diaries.

Totally. Even at this moment, right? And Elaine says, if you couldn't bath in water what would you bath in Liam? Totally. All right, what do you have

for peak Liam? Well, for me, I love his high parts on fireproof. But more than that, I think he's always the adult in the room. His tweet right after Zane left, he said in light of recent events, I think it's important to say

for the past five years, I've been part of something so special. I don't think any of us really understand. Blah, blah, blah on and on. To a lot of people, it's just a bunch of silly kids in a band, but to the people involved that means so much more. This last week has been some of the worst times, blah, blah, blah. But I guess what I'm really trying to say is, it's far from over. When we very first became successful, we all agreed that one direction would become much bigger than each individual member.

That's why I feel like right now it's okay to be sad and upset, but I do ask everyone who is a fan of us, please keep your faith in us. I'm sure there's a lot more to come. I'll love, Liam. And that was the most adult and spot-on expression to the fan base of what they were feeling. And it felt like the most mature message that we got through the entire process of Zane leaving the band. That's a good one. I'm a Liam, Stan. I know this. Responsible.

I know. You love him for that. Yeah. It's sort of bittersweet, though, because I think, you know, this is, when we know now that his life was starting to get a little bit more troubled and some of the stuff that he was getting into even just by himself in a hotel room on the road was a little bit darker.

But there is that kernel of just like caretaker in him that I think is really, really wonderful. Yeah. The other thing about Liam in this moment is that... Oh boy. He's got an alter ego. We got to talk about Big Pano.

Big Pano. Because he has... as a side gig as a producer at this point. He does. One of the members of One Direction has started like mixing house music. It's awesome. Just a hysterical development. Very, very cool.

Also, just going to throw it out there, I think the U and I remix he did is pretty solid. Okay. Okay. Let's hook this guy up with Elvira. Okay. Okay, well, I mean, are we going to do a whole episode on Big Payneau, or do you think this is really just a side hustle? Some from column A, some from column B again? I mean, at this point, it's a side hustle, certainly.

Yeah. He does. So he remixes a few of their songs. He remixes Cheryl Cole's song, I don't care. This is before they're together, or at least, presumably before they're publicly together. So he's doing some stuff here and there. He will go on to DJ a little bit. make a lot of songs that have a bunch of featured artist, be a featured artist on a bunch of

tracks. This is sort of a sphere that he ends up working in post one direction. But the seeds of it are right about now. And I'm sure he would have done more if they hadn't been working at such a breakneck pace. But he showed some real talent. I really, I really enjoy your love for Liam. I love Lee. I just like... He's really your favorite. Like sort of not. I'm like a real, I don't know. It's hard now. Just I have a real soft spot for Nile. I know. But you also like responsible human. It is the responsibility. I do. Yeah. This is what you. This is your projection into the kingdom of the girl. Totally. Totally. Plus, great high range. Great high range was able to take over me. Yes, we love him. There's no doubt about that. Nora, I have a sense that we both have the same peak Nile?

Oh, I wonder. Oh, wow. Maybe we don't. I'll tell you what it is. Okay. We took a chance. We took a chance. It's the fact... Okay, that's not mine, but that's good.

That on 18, he says, pronounces chance, chants. And it becomes a thing where the whole fan base sings, chants. And it's unquestionably my peak Nile. I think until he gets to his solo projects across the entirety of the one direction, canon. So Nile is just like in his bag in terms of being just a mensch at this point.

Like this album cycle, I think, is just peak Nile being an absolute sweetheart. First of all, here's my peak Nile. He named the album. Nile came up with four for their fourth album. Why is that something you say out loud? Oh, oh, Nile named it.

It was really... I get that the conspiracy theorists went nuts because they thought, oh, maybe they're down to four members and they knew it, and it's a harbinger of things to come. But, I mean, we... Oh, I named it.

Four. There's also like a galaxy brain version of this, right? Where it's like, the history of boy bands on their fourth album is either non-existent, irrelevant, like, it's not particularly strong. And here they are making something great on their fourth album.

I'm just not sure. I really, I just think Nile sat up one day and said, why don't we call it four? And no one came up with anything else. The other stuff, though, when they're on S&L, they're the musical guest, but they also do the girlfriend's talk show sketch. And Nile ends up being the nice one, as always, at the. end of the sketch where he asks 80 Bryant's character to dance who's very nervous about dancing.

Hey Morgan. Can I have this dance with you? Oh my gosh. I am blasting out of my pants right now. Classic Nile thing to do. There's also a story that the boys shared of when

they went to, when they were on tour in Rio, they sneak out of their hotel in the back of a bread van, like a bread delivery van to go see Christ the Redeemer. And the bread van, the back of the bread van is apparently like a little bit heated so that the bread stays crisp. And everybody's like sweating and hot and uncomfortable. Nile is like losing his mind. At least if you hear Harry's telling Nile is just like so nervous about the fact that they're doing this. And everybody else is just sort of like, all right, I'm a little warm, but like, it's going to be fine.

And Nile is very, very nervous. I just think we learned so much about what a wonderful specimen he is during this period in time. Can I ask just one question about that, though? Totally. Is there something to this Nile Horan, Ellie Golding, Ed Sheeran, Love Triangle? Because that's from this period. I mean, she confirmed that she went on a couple dates with Nile. And we know about Ed Shearin's don't.

Which is, you know, a song about an unfaithful girlfriend's fling with one of his best friends. So there was a lot of speculating that maybe, especially after Ellie Golding and Shearin were sort of cuddling at the VMAs in 2013, that maybe that maybe that she was at the center of this love triangle. Do you have a view on this? my view on this is that I would leave Ed Sheeran for Nile seven days a week Yes this is really

I guess we're never doing every single The Shearing people are going to come for me Yeah It's not I respect him I just not for me It's just not certain songs Really fun Seems like a great dude

Usually not for me Yeah That's it Well apparently not for Ali Goulding either So When I go now we move fairly quickly into the more reflective and difficult part of this conversation, which is peak zane.

And it's all tied into what happened on, we finally have something that happened on March 25th, don't we? Right. Well, and then first we have something that happened on March 19th, right? Because the backdrop of this is that the Zane stuff has been sort of in the rumor mill for a while. he has you know he missed the today show thing he's cut his hair we really should have known you know it is my my theory that you can always tell when you know either somebody gets bangs or a significant haircut is is not without subtext well i got a haircut last week what are you

saying i guess we'll find out um but he i mean he had a man bun for goodness sakes like Zane was part of man bun culture. Something was bound to be up. But he's having a lot of issues with tabloids. He's being publicly accused of infidelity quite a bit. It's all seems very overwhelming. On March 19th... The Perry Edwards relationship is not working.

Right. On March 19th, he leaves the tour due to stress. There's a video of him on the 18th in Hong Kong crying on stage. It's pretty bleak. Yeah. Just seems like not a, like, look, the sort of different impulses and, and what exactly went into this, there remain some loose ends that I'm sure are up for debate. It's very obvious that this was a person who was not having a good time.

No. It's not clear that any of them were having a good time. But it was impacting him the most. And you have said... I think Nile was doing okay. Yeah, maybe he was. You're right. You're right about that.

Nile was happy. That's right. He felt like he took a chance and was happy to be there. But from the very beginning, Nora, you have spoken about it's all there on videotape. The emotional and mental stress that Zane is going through and just the fact that he's more introverted and out of his element, he almost didn't go audition in the first place, right? He had to be cajoled into doing it. he's not super comfortable in this world. He's the one who, I mean, none of them can dance, right?

Like, we know this. They're not dancers. But he's the one where when they do dancing boot camp on the X Factor, he just doesn't even go in. It's like me at a wedding. And that's a pretty, like, where do you even? No, come on. I'm first on the dance floor at wedding. Exactly.

I love to dance at a wedding. You know Liam would be there. Totally. Nile would be there, like dancing a jig. Yeah, of course. But Zane's not. No. And as the press around this speculates,

there's a whole lot pointing to mental state, pointing to drug use. None of it is really ever validated. This guy is the first one to publicly fall from what is really an unprecedented four-year stretch of work. that the only reason it got this far is because he's in his early 20s now. Somebody who was older wouldn't have had the energy for this. They have been nonstop since they left their homes for that X-Factor audition, and it was never sustainable. And the industry that was built up around them,

as always happens with big artists. There is a whole cottage business of managers and lawyers and agents and road merchandise people, and all of the various business partners, but also hangers on, who become reliant on the machine for their income, seek to perpetuate for as long as humanly possible. And to be totally clear,

you can still, to this day, see it with the Grateful Dead, who are out there with Dead and Co., with John Mayer, still supporting people who have worked with that ban now for decades after decades after decades. but even they take some time off. And this band took no time off.

And this was a casualty of that war. So he leaves the tour due to stress. Initially, he's supposed to join them again in a few days. But six days after leaving the tour on March 25th, he puts out a statement that says, my life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined. But after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band.

I'd like to apologize to the fans if I've let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart. I'm leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who's able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight. The boys put out a statement that says we're really sad to see Zane go, but we totally respect his decision and sent him all our love for the future. The past five years have been beyond amazing. We've gone through so much together, so we'll always be friends. The four of us will now continue. We're looking forward to recording the new album and seeing all the fans on the next stage of the world tour. And so a pretty massive freak out ensues, despite the fact that clearly the boys and the people around them, as you were just describing, kind of had to go into damage control to convince people that it wasn't over.

But the next night in Jakarta, Harry's crying, Louis's putting his arm around imaginary Zane. It felt different than what was put out in the press release. And so to that end, I understand why the fans fell down a little bit of a conspiracy theory rabbit hole. about some of this. Well, it's also, this is sort of foreshadowing the conversation we'll have on the next episode

on Made in the A.m., but I think they did better, even if it was just for one more album, at making it seem like a seamless transition, then really you could have predicted. Yeah. It just seems like such a difficult thing

to subtract one and just carry on, even though for the most part they were kind of able to do that. Yeah. I think the thing here is that, so you talked about all of the speculation, bringing up things like substance abuse, infidelity, sort of the personal life stuff that seemed pretty unfair.

We know that the part of it that was very much true was just the exhaustion and how they were all feeling that. Yes. I think that part, it seems like the boys in the moment knew, Like everybody knew, everybody understood it, everybody could relate to it. Everybody was feeling it to a certain extent. The stuff that at least, you know, correct me if you had a different impression, but in the moment, the stuff that didn't seem like a huge part of the conversation that ended up being

a big part of the conversation was the fact that he didn't feel musically fulfilled. Yes. By being part of the band in the same way that maybe the other guys did. And that hadn't really come up that much up to this point. And again, the first quotes he gave. after the fact was, you know, it was music that was already given to us and we were told that this is what was going to sell. It's not music that I would listen to. Would you listen to one direction sat at a party with your girl? I wouldn't. To me, that's not an insult. That's me

as a 22-year-old man. So he was unhappy with the direction. And if you pardon the terrible pun, but there's certainly more than that. It just feels like we started to get a lot of insight into what it was like to be, not just the only person of color in the band, but the person with Muslim heritage who was sort of grappling with what that meant and how to express that. And the overwhelming nature of being in the middle of this storm. I mean, we say, well, the rest of the boys carried up.

Five months later, they announce, that they're going to take a break, that they're going to take a hiatus. So they did put out another album that we'll talk about, but it's not like the other guys just sort of carried on indefinitely. They finished the tour so they could collect their $200 plus million. Right. And they played out their contract, right? Like they were on a five album.

They were signed for five albums. They made five albums and then the band disintegrated. Yeah. But this was just the sort of opening of the floodgates. I think. It was just Zane was the first one to crack. There were cracks pretty deep underneath the surface. Yeah.

And I think you're right to point out some of the factors that made his experience just different from anybody else's. I think that in the conversation that ended up popping up around his musical dissatisfaction being part of One Direction, all of that, I mean, it's. certainly very valid from his perspective. I do think certain contours of that conversation ended up taking advantage of some of the ways that pure pop, boy bands, music that is typically beloved by young women are unfairly criticized and that's unfortunate. But, I mean,

look, I think it's a little funny that Nile has to say you can tie me up in chains on illusion. if Zane said he was just downright miserable having to sing believe in love on that song, like, I totally buy it. And I think that's totally, like,

there's a lot of guys that age that I think probably would have felt similarly. I fell down a rabbit hole of the fan videos after this announcement came out. I mean, just... It's wild. So... What happened?

What happened? What's one direction? Stop! Many. Look at this. It won't look. Crying. They'll always leave his butt for him when he wants to come home.

Videos. On the one direction, Facebook pig. There's that thing about how Zane is leaving the band. And it's sort of amusing. And then it gets a little bit scary when you think about a guy who was maybe emotional. unwell in a moment having the added pressure of millions of people. Zane, why would you do this? How could you do this? Like, you've ruined my life. Like, putting all of that added pressure onto an individual. Wow. In a moment in time where we

weren't really aware of the psychological effects of that of that mass moment on social media, they were living it before it had even been spoken as a condition or a concern. We weren't quite there yet. You just can't imagine what these guys were going through. Well, because this is sort of one of the interesting elements to there being the first band that social media kind of made. Because one thing that celebrity and social media share is the ability to put yourself or see yourself in something that is far away. That is not actually a physical part of your life. So that can happen either by just sort of being part of an online community and being able to access people who share interests, share love for a band, a movie, a book, anything.

There's also the ability to do that through, you know, I love this celebrity. I think about my own life through the work that they do and identify in a way with someone whose fans have not actually met them. And those two things converging up to a certain point is really, really special and wonderful. And then there's a line and it goes past the line. It's the first time that the fans couldn't control the outcome and they couldn't, like, create the mass force through the scale of the fan base like they did with no control. They couldn't actually retrofit something to their own narrative. It just was an unsolvable problem. And boy, did they express it.

We're going to end up talking a lot more about the aftermath of Zane leaving when we go through Made in the AM. But there is a moment in one direction history that is sort of the one where maybe you remember where you were. It's probably this one. No doubt. All right. Let's wrap this up with our last. few categories. Are any of these songs about Taylor Swift, Nathan?

Nora, night changes that line, going out tonight changes into something red. Going out tonight changes into something red. Could be. Could be. Strokes imaginary goatee. I hear you on that.

Yeah, I hear you on that. I mean, I still sit on right now from the last album, which had the same melody as State of Grace. But I'm not, so I'm not really hearing it here. Are any of these about Taylor? I don't hear any of them that way. I did. We talked at the top about the fact that there are so many sort of 80s. There's some 70s references on this album too. They're sort of, you know, that's one of the benefits of getting to be derivative and referential is that you can pick and choose. whatever you want. But it does fascinate me that this album and 1989 released in the same year share that maybe idiosyncratic interest in that decade in music. Yeah. Which I do chalk up to being coincidental, but it's sort of, I don't know, it's just a funny coincidence. There were lots of overlapping producer people who'd studied under the master who made 1989. So let's stick with coincidence,

but there definitely are some common themes that these artists are pursuing. It's just funny to me particularly because the discourse around 1989 was that this was a thing that Taylor was doing to separate herself from any other contemporary conversation about popular music.

And I think that's a totally valid point. It's just that there is a little... I add an asterisk to that because there's this other massive album that kind of did the same thing. Anywho. This album, who won it? I'm going Harry.

Okay. I think this is where I have to go Harry for the first time. His songwriting is just suddenly really good. Yeah. Where do Broken Hearts go in Stockholm Syndrome are two of... They're certainly among the best half of songs on this album and probably higher than that. I love both of them. I listen to both of them a lot.

It had always been sort of interesting when Harry wrote on prior records, but his songs were never, the songs that he contributed to in the writing process, never tended to be my faves. Yeah. All of a sudden, there's been a real step forward. In my heart of hearts, I think it's Harry. I want to give some real credit to Louis and Liam because I believe that they, from a songwriting perspective, moved this album into a play.

where it mattered, as you talked about. I mean, I think the songwriting is really meaningfully better here. And top to bottom, it's an album that I enjoy more. I just came down on the guys who survived and stayed in it because they're going to release Drag Me Down in July, which is, again, stepping on an album that came out in November with the brand new song from the upcoming record. It's like, it's the start of the TikTokization of music where you're only watching a very short bit of content and then you scroll to the next one. That's effectively what happens with one direction. But they're trying to show proof of life and put something out there to keep the fan base feeling like there's still more to come, even though we know they're going to announce a hiatus in August.

So the guys who won this album or the four who stayed in it, just a little bit longer to get through to the end in a moment in time when Zane left, yes, but it's hard to believe that all four of them weren't feeling some level of that fatigue and exhaustion. Very true. Very true. Nora, what's the Sweeney's lyric? Yeah, we can't do this. We can't do this whole episode without talking about the words that get me in my feels.

This shouldn't be surprising. It's the entire chorus of night changes for me. It just really makes me feel all the warm fuzzies. Okay. Those have been well documented now in this podcast. and I think that you are you are very right in the quality of that song.

The inverse of that, why do they always give Nile the shit to sing? They gave him chinny chin chin. On fireproof, they give him, I'm feeling something deep inside hotter than a jet stream burning up. The jet stream is cold. It's not hot.

And I love act my age, but Nile is the one who they give when I'm fat and old and my kids think I'm a joke. Why? Poor Nile! He's just the one. They're always like, oh, we got to give it to Puck. Let's roll him out. Put clown boy out there

singing about being fat and old and chinny chin chins. It's fair. It's because he's just a good sport. I think that's it. Don't worry about it, guys. I got it. He really is so happy to be there. Again, even on this out, album, there is zero evidence of the solo career that is about to take off. It's fascinating. I mean, we're still in, Nile would keep going for another five years if he had his druthers.

I'm aware that I am twisting myself into knots to defend Niles less latent than it might seem musical genius. I've decided he was just really working hard on his guitar playing during this album cycle. That's why he didn't write any of these songs by himself. Okay. Well, he certainly is getting better in all things, as we'll talk about

on the next album. But this one needs a grade from us, Nora. We really both had a... Yeah. Can we talk about just one more thing with the lyrics on this album? It just amuses me to no end, particularly when it comes to Harold.

that, like, they can't, even when they're getting more and more mature, they can't really help being Randy teenagers a little bit. No, they are Randy teenagers. What do you mean? So where do broken hearts go? Yes. I think is just a beautiful, sweet, often very poignant sock. And then Harry can't, I mean, maybe it wasn't Harry.

There's plenty of co-writers on this. but all of a sudden, just the clunkiest, or are you giving it to someone else? Yeah. Yeah. That's not good. I mean, maybe it's like, maybe in a weird way it is good because that's just how they would have thought of that in the moment. But, oh, there's something very charming about almost being in this place where it's like,

oh, these enlightened boys. And then they just can't, they can't not go there. No, they can't, and they are doing it both lyrically and in real life. Grade this thing, Nora. I'm just going to need a little moment to get over that. A solid A minus. This is a really, really good album. In the pantheon of everything that we've discussed so far,

I almost wanted to just give it an A because I just absolutely love this album. I think that is unfair to some of the other work that we have previously discussed. Okay. Because I don't like, there are a lot of Taylor Swift albums that I'm taking with me to a desert island before I am taking a one direction album. And that's just that is, that is the perspective that I bring to this podcast. Uh, however, I think this is a really, really, really strong album.

And I really love it. I think it's top to bottom. Got a lot of songs that I return to. do over and over again and don't think that I will ever stop returning to. So I'm with you on all of those points. We're returning to a place where you seem to grade one half thing higher than I do. I gave this a B plus. I think it's a much more consistent listen.

It's much more cohesive. There is less filler. The guys are starting to show themselves really as individuals and singers. And more than ever, you can tell when Harry's singing, Zane's there. Liam, Louis is finding his voice. and of course Nile is singing all the ridiculous lines. I like this album a lot. I give it a B plus because there are still some parts of this

that remind me of what they started as. And there are some unforced errors in some of the songs, in a few of the things that are borrowed, where you still come back to, gosh, right, they started as a cover band. And so while I'm not all Haley Williams and Matthew Healy on this stuff, it does for me keep me from giving this album

like an A, like this should have been considered for a Grammy. That said, I love this album top to bottom and steal my girl is my favorite One Direction song. I think. I mean, it's right neck and neck with I should have kissed you, but they hit this out of the park. And I do feel like the drama around the band, again, we learn more about these guys from content around the album than we do through the album. But that content around the album overshadowed something that the press really had already pigeonholed as being just sort of boy band schlock.

This is better than that. It's a B plus for me, Nor. Should have been nominated. Should have at least been nominated for a gram. This has been every single album, One Direction. I'm Nora Pricciotti. As always, he is Nathan Hubbard. We will be back next Monday for the final episode in the One Direction discography on Made in the A.m.

Thank you, as always, to the wonderful Ki-emann of Mullin for producing this episode. We'll talk soon.