Four

by One Direction

Overview

If it's November and you're a One Directioner it can only mean one thing...time for another album. Four is the band's fourth album in four years, each released just in time for optimal holiday-season gift-giving. It's their fourth well-crafted, packed-with-great-pop-songs album in a row. Despite rumors flying about possible collaborations with everyone from John Legend to Pharrell to Good Charlotte, the band mostly worked with the same production team from Midnight Memories (Julian Bunetta and John Ryan) to craft an album that sounds perfectly up to date, but also just different enough from the usual chart-fodder to sound distinctive. Though the group and its team generally do a fine job with ballads, the tracks on Four with a little more life in them are the standouts. "Girl Almighty" is an odd mixture of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," Paul Simon, and Bollywood pop that doesn't sound like anything else on the charts, a couple tracks ("Stockholm Syndrome," "Fireproof") follow HAIM's lead and mix Fleetwood Mac-inspired vocal harmonies and sweetly slick '80s pop in a very pleasant way, and a handful more continue the group's odd but welcome fascination with '80s pop/rock, especially the very, very Journey-sounding "Steal My Girl." "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," too, feels like it time-traveled from the airwaves of an AOR station in 1984, where it was happily sandwiched between cuts by Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams. These tracks sound so good they can't help but overshadow the ballads that make up the rest of the record. It's becoming more clear with each record that in their current incarnation, the guys in One D are way better at the fun songs than they are at the ballads. Songs like the facile "Night Changes" and the overblown "Spaces" sound overcooked and the one big name they worked with, Ed Sheeran, lets down the side with his mawkish "18." The lads sound much more convincing as fun-loving party boys or slightly melancholic crooners, and when they reach for the big emotions, they just can't reach them. Luckily on Four the scales are tipped heavily in favor of the kind of songs they do best, with the majority of them sounding like good-time hits that will go a long way toward warming up a cold November night. ~ Tim Sendra

Product Details

Release Date:	11/17/2014
Label:	Syco Music
UPC:	0888430671027

Tracks

1. Steal My Girl
2. Ready to Run
3. Where Do Broken Hearts Go
4. 18
5. Girl Almighty
6. Fool's Gold
7. Night Changes
8. No Control
9. Fireproof
10. Spaces
11. Stockholm Syndrome
12. Clouds

Album Credits

Performance Credits

One Direction   Primary Artist,Vocals (Background)
Steve Robson   Bass
Dennis Caplinger   Fiddle
Wayne Hector   Vocals (Background)
Peter Bunetta   Vocals (Background)
Teddy Geiger   Vocals (Background)
Luke Potashnick   Guitar
Jamie Scott   Guitar,Keyboards,Vocals (Background)
Julian Bunetta   Drums,Vocals (Background)
Andrew Haas   Bass
Ed Drewett   Vocals (Background)
Damon Bunetta   Vocals (Background)
John Ryan   Guitar,Wurlitzer,Vocals (Background)
Niall Horan   Guitar
Ian Franzino   Vocals (Background)
Matt Rad   Drums,Piano,Guitar,Keyboards
Noah Livingston   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Serban Ghenea   Mixing
Steve Robson   Producer
Joe Zook   Mixing
John Hanes   Mixing Engineer
Wayne Hector   Composer
Oliver Frank   Composer
Teddy Geiger   Composer,Producer
Ash Howes   Mixing
Jamie Scott   Composer,Musician,Producer
Tom Coyne   Mastering
Julian Bunetta   Mixing,Composer,Engineer,Musician,Producer,Programming,Vocal Producer
Sam Miller   Engineer,Vocal Producer,Additional Production
Maureen McDonald   Composer
Randy Merrill   Assistant
Ryan Joseph Shaughnessy   Photography
Andrew Haas   Engineer,Musician
Johan Carlsson   Composer
Ruth-Anne Cunningham   Composer
Ian Dowling   Engineer
Ed Drewett   Composer
Alex Oriet   Engineer,Additional Production
Ed Sheeran   Composer
John Ryan   Composer,Engineer,Musician,Producer,Programming,Vocal Producer
Ali Tamposi   Composer
Harry Styles   Composer
Liam Payne   Composer
Louis Tomlinson   Composer
Niall Horan   Composer
Zayn Malik   Composer
Scott "Pages" Mehner   Composer
Ben "Bengineer" Chang   Engineer,Vocal Producer
Ian Franzino   Engineer,Musician,Producer,Assistant Engineer
Matt Rad   Producer,Programming,Additional Production
Sam Martin   Composer
Afterhrs   Producer
Paro Westerlund   Producer,Programming

Editorial Reviews

The biggest boy band of all time present what is, unsurprisingly, their fourth album, the follow-up to 2013's Midnight Memories. Featuring a song penned by good friend Ed Sheeran, the quartet deliver another strong album of modern pop that's equally balanced between '80s-influenced rockers and big ballads.