One Direction has produced yet another smashing record with their just-released album “Midnight Memories”, the fastest-selling album on Amazon UK in 15 years in pre orders alone.  The album was described by the band as edgier and as having a “slightly rockier tone” than their previous albums. The teenage heartthrobs have released an album every year since 2011, and it doesn’t look like they are stopping anytime soon.

Definitely the boys have dabbled their hand in different genres, such as the title track “Midnight Memories”, which has the similar rock and roll anthem sound of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, or “Little White Lies”, a song that fuses pop, rock, and dubstep (very Imagine Dragons-like).

“Best Song Ever” kickstarts the album with the familiar boy band pop song feel, but then it turns a complete 180 degrees with “Story of My Life”, a very heartfelt, Mumford and Sons inspired song. Because this album differs so greatly from their usual sound, many songs were- to put this nicely- ‘inspired’ by different artists. “Happily” and “Through the Dark” have the same folk rock sound as The Lumineers, and “Right Now” feels like a OneRepublic song- maybe it’s because OneRepublic’s lead singer Ryan Tedder co wrote it.

Despite all that, “Midnight Memories” serves as an awakening to the fans. One Direction is no longer a boy band for preteens. They stand as a male vocal harmony group and this album will not disappoint any music lovers.