Midnight Memories Review

So. Midnight Memories, the long awaited third album, has arrived.

Every album of any artist is subject to critique, and even the beautiful 1D is no exception. And I think Midnight Memories is one of their more interesting albums so far.

To start off, I loved Midnight Memories. (I’m a Directioner; I don’t have much of a choice) It was fun. It was different, at times even shockingly so. Like Up All Night and Take Me Home, there were fantastic songs, there were good songs, there were decent songs, and there was one song that was just kind of “eh”. So I did really, really like it. But…I did have a small problem.

Even though it was enjoyable, it had a sort of experimental, jumbled feeling to it. There were about 3 different genres of music squeezed in there – the bubblegum pop that was their roots, a sort of Mumford & Sons-esque style (what would you call that? Folk rock or something?), and old school rock. There were some songs that were purely one style, and there were others that seemed like different combinations of those 3. I like albums with variety. It’s boring if all the songs sound the same. But all those genres are pretty different, and as I said, it did have an experimental, kind of trial-and-error feeling, if that makes any sense. That’s not really surprising, of course. It seems like the boys are in a transitioning stage not just in their lives, but in their career too. They’re still holding the hand of the pop style that started them out, while at the same time branching out and dabbling in those other genres.

Basically, I adored Midnight Memories, and of course it’s a must-buy for any Directioner. (If you can, get the deluxe edition. The 4 extra songs are worthwhile, and if you get the physical copy, the CD comes in a little book that includes pictures and notes from the boys. Harry’s nearly made me tear up) They certainly still have room for improvement. I think it would be good for them to define their personal style a little bit more, and not have the genre swerve around quite so much. But since they still have room to grow, that makes me even more excited for what they’ll do with album #4.

Notable Songs

Story of My Life – in my opinion, this was easily the strongest song on the album, if not one of the best of their entire career. It’s catchy, the lyrics are beautiful, the harmonies are lovely, and it sounds great both in the studio and live. They ought to do more like this.

Midnight Memories and Little Black Dress – these two songs were probably the most surprising. We haven’t really heard anything like these before from them. They have a thumping beat and gritty guitar riffs. (Although in LBD the instrumental overpowered their vocals at some points) I liked these, and they did better with the rock n’ roll style than I expected, but they were a bit weak lyrically.

Something Great – so far, every 1D album has had just one song that doesn’t quite measure up to the rest of them. It’s the kind of song that’s tolerable to listen to, but unless you’re just feeling really lazy, you skip it when it comes up on your iPod. For me, it was Stole My Heart on UAN, Magic on TMH, and on this album, it’s Something Great. This song is just kind of bland and unmemorable. Nothing really sticks out about it. Also, something sounded off about the vocals, almost like it was either too low for them, or too close to the break between their head and chest voice. I’m not exactly sure what it was, but there was definitely a pitch issue. I’m hoping this one doesn’t get performed live, because if it doesn’t sound good in the studio, it’s not likely to sound good in concert.