One Down, Four to Go

Originally published: August 1, 2015

Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson

Just when I thought my One Direction phase was pretty much over, they surprise the world with a new single that is blowing up the internet. People are freaking the eff out (reactions range from scary to hilarious and are all gloriously ridiculous). If you haven't noticed, don't worry — there are far more important things in life (although half the world is literally dying). If you're in the mood for some light entertainment, however, read on!

One Direction have always firmly fallen into a category I like to refer to in my head as "Marshmallow" music — there's barely a trace of nutritional value in it, but you'll ignore that fact because it tastes really good and as long as it doesn't make you sick, you allow yourself to indulge once in a while. You eat plenty of other good stuff, right? You've got your various forms of Rock music to take care of roughage, some Folk and Classical so you don't forget your veggies, Jazz and Soul for a little protein, and so forth. Balance. When One Direction released their first album, their music was even worse than Marshmallow: it was Rock Candy. They didn't even try to hide the fact that it was just pure sugar. However, with each new record their sound has slowly but surely been evolving into something more substantial. "Story of My Life" was the first song to ever really peak my interest; before that, I had written them off as just another teenybopper sensation, fueled by mass hysteria and manipulated by a major record label to cash in on the promise of mending broken hearts. 

The band may have started out that way, but it is clear with this new single ("Drag Me Down"), that they are boldly and intentionally departing from their Rock Candy roots (an evolution perhaps accelerated by the departure of Zayn Malik in March?). The brilliant thing about it is that, not only are they venturing into what is, for them, either completely new or fairly unexplored territory, the song is quite an intricate and wonderfully elegant interweave of a number of different genres, all whilst remaining true to the heart and commercial image of One Direction AND managing to re-brand them without their fifth member at the same time. Let's call it "Cake". Don't get me wrong, they're still marshmallowing it pretty hard (as is typical, the lyrics often suffer tremendously), but this single is a serious step up in their game if they want to endure as a group — it has substance to it, even if it is still essentially sugar-coated, and that's something everyone seems to be noticing.

Also quite evident here is that the quartet can pull their own weight just fine without Zayn. However, to those still grieving the loss of 1D's Mystery Man, here are some words of encouragement from Stephen Hawking: "My advice to any heartbroken young girl is to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics, because one day there may well be proof of multiple universes. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies another different universe. And in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction."

He adds: "This girl may like to know that in another possible universe, she and Zayn are happily married."