Their fans are getting older, but are they 40 yet? Maybe!
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[4.90]
[4]
Edward Okulicz: Second single time, so it’s Sheeran o’clock! I guess this shifts units, but it’s not even a particularly well-made non-banger. This isn’t tender, this is brittle; the words are predictable and I’m sure I could predict every note based on the one before it, so ingrained is this sort of bilge in the promo campaigns of their forebears.
[3]
Anthony Easton: I’m always surprised when boy bands seem to be able to absorb melancholy. This has a bit too much start and stop energy, but there are moments of tender detail and fantastic sadness.
[6]
Patrick St. Michel: Imagine every good aspect of One Direction’s music. Now forget all of it, and replace it with acoustic guitar and the MySpace poetry you winced in embarrassment at two years down the line.
[1]
Brad Shoup: The chorus is a set of rising gulps, each one more desperate than the previous. The arrangement’s highway gallop trumps the boys, which is something that should never happen.
[5]
Katherine St Asaph: Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind. *cue wind machine*
[5]
Jonathan Bradley: Woolly guitar that could be Mumfordian, though I prefer to imagine Laura Marling singing over it. The restraint endures until the chorus, which is neither big enough to shock nor soft enough to entangle. “Story of My Life” plays against this band’s type: the most charming moments here are the most frail.
[5]
Alfred Soto: “Best Song Ever” they took seriously — the acoustic arpeggios adduce their commitment to recording The Best Song Ever, beloved by generations that grew up with several British number one hits for Take That. Give ’em credit: the chorus doesn’t go for the gorge. But, c’mon, work on those lyrics. Young horny guys don’t give a shit about clouds.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: Last weekend Gary Barlow OBE, a man who has never not been 42, advised a 16-year-old X Factor contestant to “celebrate” his age, rather than playing the role of besuited balladeer before his time. One Direction are slightly older, but only slightly, and yet they seem more than happy to do similar. “Story Of My Life,” from the title down, feels more like a future comeback single than the work of a global force at their height, as if they’re already at a stage of “oh look how far we’ve come, remember the old days?” when the old days were only really two or three years ago. Perhaps that can be a long time at their age, and perhaps the nostalgia cycle for both bands and muggles is only continuing to speed up; at the very least it isn’t what the song’s about — even in the tutting and sighing sense the title, perhaps decided before the lyrics, doesn’t suit. What it’s really all about, finely crafted, sweet lament to unrequited love aside, is a decidedly unglam stomp that yes, even Barlow is currently espousing. It’s warm in a way its most likely influences rarely are, gentle and evenly flowing; not in any way exciting, but for as long as One Direction are beholden to a Quarter 4 schedule, likely the sort of thing they’ll continue pumping out. The faint recall of “Everybody In Love” in the title melody is a reminder that it could be good fortune for a lot of people for every year that they are.
[8]
Will Adams: Aw, that’s sweet.
[6]