One Direction's Take Me Home: Track by track review (Canadian ...

We got to take One Direction home!

Don?t get too crazy on us, Directioners. We?re only talking about 1D?s new album, Take Me Home, and Postmedia News was the first in Canada to hear the record. (It officially arrives Nov. 13.)

Before they started work on the disc, One Direction?s Harry Styles told Dose.ca that they were aiming to create a live ?band? feel for album No. 2.

?We want to have a little bit heavier guitars, bigger drums, more of a live feel, because that?s what we like doing,? he said.

So did they nail that ?One Thing??

We?ve had a listen. Check out our track-by-track impressions of Take Me Home.

1. ?Live While We?re Young?

It?s the lead single ? a track fans committed to memory after its September debut ? and it?s since reached the No. 2 spot on the Canadian Hot 100. And for an introduction to Take Me Home, you couldn?t ask for anything sweeter.

So what if they?re adolescents, the One Direction you?ll find on Take Me Home hasn?t exactly experienced a growth spurt since Up All Night. (That debut album only arrived in North America this spring, after all ? November 2011, overseas.)

Instead, One Direction have jacked the energy on their mega-selling formula ? and in the case of this particular track, they?ve even recruited the three-man songwriting team who crafted their break-out hits ?One Thing? and ?What Makes You Beautiful.? (That team being Savan Kotecha, Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub.)

The tempo here is boosted, the chorus is shouted, the drums are embiggened ? and everything hinges on a classic rock-guitar riff (a little something borrowed from The Clash?s ?Should I Stay Or Should I Go?).

This is the major feel of Take Me Home: Up All Night-era One Direction after a dinner of pop rocks and Red Bull. Loud, boisterous ? but still as adorable as a pile of puppies.

Or maybe more realistically, this is One Direction faced with a full year of stadium shows ? tasked with keeping the hordes squealing past bedtime. (Or hollering like football freaks: that choir shouting ?wanna live? at the end has way more testosterone than the previous generation of teeny-boppers.)

Either way, you?d better be ready to go ?crazy, crazy, crazy ?til we see the sun.? There are 12 more tracks of this to go.

Carpe diem, girl. Or YOLO, if you prefer.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Relationship status: Summer fling. WHO?S UP FOR SOME BODY SHOTS?!

2. ?Kiss You?

Take ?Live While We?re Young? and play it double-time. Stadium rock, meet stadium pop. Like the first track, ?Kiss You? smacks you with a stomping drum beat and builds to a bouncing chorus ? one that ultimately breaks down so the five boys can do some X Factor-style belting.?I?d guess this is the ?live band? feel the group?s been talking about in interviews. There?s a touch of jock-jams to the mood, but cuter. (T-ball jock jams?) And the whole thing seems engineered to teach all those first-time concert-goers ? so, most of the kids at a One Direction show ? some lessons in audience participation. The beat ? which swings between a stadium stomp on the chorus and a hyper-active, double-dutch-ready breakdown on some verses ? is made for handclaps and fist pumping. And the chorus is an instant sing-a-long. ?If you don?t want to take it slow/ And you just want to take me home/ Baby say, ?Yeah,? the troop sings. Cue age-inappropriate shouting. If this one isn?t a single, it?ll at least become a centerpiece to that ongoing tour.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Relationship status: Make-out party hook-up

3. ?Little Things?

The first of two Ed Sheeran-penned contributions to Take Me Home, this dulcet tune shows its coffee-shop pedigree. Accompanied by little more than acoustic guitar, the boys get a chance to play up what they learned about singing in X Factor bootcamp. As for the lyrics ? a list of all the ?little things? they love about a very special lady ? they seem engineered for maximum swoonage until you realize One Thing: they?re just ticking off your imperfections while suggesting you?ve got tanking self-esteem. (Bet you didn?t realize you had dimples on your back ?til One Direction mentioned it. And what?s this self-righteous business about how ?you?ll never love yourself half as much as I love you??) Only imaginary boyfriends can suggest you?re less than awesome and get away with it. Still, a pretty melody and a shift in mood are a welcome addition.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Relationship status: Wimpy first boyfriend. The one you dumped when you learned how to ?treat yourself right, darlin.?

4. ?C?mon, C?mon?

One Direction ditch the boring girls they came with when they catch the sight of you ? yes, you! ? on the dance floor. (?There?s something in your eyes, saying come on, come on, dance with me baby!?) But before they can swoop in to charm you, they?ll need to psych themselves up. This calls for something out of an ?80s training montage! Spin class-ready BPM! Whooshing synths! Soaring vocals that ride into the danger zone! None of this is necessarily a bad thing. Now, which little moppet gets to play Rocky?

Rating: 3 out of 5

Relationship status: The Rocky to your Adrian

5. ?Last First Kiss?

One Direction have found true love, and though they?re afraid you?ll run away when they tell you how they feel, they?ve just got to tell you that they want to be your everything: your last first kiss, and your first you know what. True love, in this instance, is best expressed as a mid-tempo ballad buffed with layers of strings and synths. (For Directioners experiencing their first rock show, this would be the portion of the evening where you?d borrow your mom?s lighter ? or iPhone ? and wave it in the air.) 1D?s Niall Horan has said this is his favourite cut off Take Me Home, so try to imagine his earnest little face looking up outside your bedroom window ? boombox raised above his tousled, blonde head ? while his four bandmates play chaperone. (The group gets songwriting co-credit on this one, so you can pretend they mean every ever-loving word.)

Rating: 3 out of 5

Relationship status: High-school soul mate

6. ?Heart Attack?

Another chewy, stadium-ready pop song in the ?Kiss You? style. ?This time, though, One Direction are hand-clapping through their tears. Their girls have found new boys, and (imagine a Michael Jackson style yelp, here): ?YOW! I never thought it?d hurt so bad.? If you listen to this one 10 times in a row, I?m sure they?ll feel better. One side note: there?s an ?oh oh? melody that runs throughout the song and in the chorus. For Pepsi spokeskids, that little tune sounds an awful lot like the whistling on the Coca Cola ?Open Happiness? jingle. If they get in trouble, will Drew Brees and the rest of the New Orleans Saints have to sub for the band on tour?

Rating: 3 out of 5

Relationship status: On-again/off-again boyfriend

7. ?Rock Me?

This Dr. Luke production opens with Queen?s signature ?We Will Rock You? stomp ? just in case you forgot the title. But you won?t mistake this one for an actual rock song. The tune?s lyrics wistfully recount a lost love from ?summer ?09? ? and, fittingly, the verses swing with an easy, campfire-style tempo. But then we get to the chorus ? and the whole thing suffers an identity crisis. The group sneers over that Queen-indebted stomp: ?I want you to rock me? I want you to hit the pedal, heavy metal, show me you care? ? which is kind of weird. Especially considering they set up the chorus as ?whispered? words from the summertime sweetheart they?ll always hold dear. Whatever. Harry Styles? haircut was made for headbanging.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Relationship status: Guy you regret kissing at summer camp

8. ?Change My Mind?

Seduction isn?t supposed to be as cute as a basket of puppies, is it? And yet, that?s the effect here. A sample come-on from the chorus: ?Baby if you say, you want me to stay/ Stay for the night/ I?ll change my mind.? And yet, for all the smooth bravado ? and occasional tear-jerking high note ? you?d think they were talking about spending the night at Liam?s place so they can play Legos a while longer.

Maybe it?s all the layers and layers of instrumentation distracting from the message. Or maybe it?s the beat, just quick enough to keep you from turning down the lights. Either way, this one?s probably not going to get into your brain, never mind your pants.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Relationship status: Needy boyfriend

9. ?I Would?

Finally, a chance to bring the LOLs. Part of the 1D appeal is their sense of humour ? and for anyone who can?t see beyond the matchy outfits and buffed up teen pop, a few jokes, even corny ones, can cut through the earnest high-gloss of Take Me Home.

McFly ? UK pop-rockers whose greatest contribution to North American pop culture is probably a bit part in Lindsay Lohan?s Just My Luck ? supply ?I Would,? which lets the boys play unlikely underdogs vying for a girl who?s already got a bad-ass boyfriend.

In ?90s boy-band style, every guy gets a verse ? each ending with a one-liner.? Example: ?It feels like I?m constantly playing/ A game that I?m destined to lose/ ?Cause I can?t compete with your boyfriend/He?s got 27 tattoos!? (The evil BF wouldn?t be Harry Styles, would it?)

But at the end of every wocka-wocka verse we?re walloped with a sugar-rush chorus ? one that storms in with the pulse of ?90s-nostalgic synths that feel more Alphabeat than Usher. Good, clean, cheesy fun.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Relationship status: Crushing on the class clown

10. ?Over Again?

The second Ed Sheeran contribution on Take Me Home ? and you?ll be able to tell as much within 10 seconds. There?s something about the patter of those lovelorn verses? ? never mind the acoustic guitar accompaniment and hushed delivery ? that make this one sound as though 1D is just covering their ginger BFF. Like ?Little Things,? its inclusion is a welcome shift in mood, even if it?s not a game-changing piece. And it allows listeners to pay a little more attention to the boys? singing talent. (There?s a pretty but fleeting moment of harmony on the chorus ? and the record doesn?t play up those vocal moments enough, really, considering 1D?s a five-piece group that sings better than they dance.)

Rating: 3 out of 5

Relationship status: Boyfriend material

11. ?Back For You?

After going through other up-tempo numbers like ?Kiss You? and ?Heart Attack,? the pounding ?Back For You? comes off like formula filler. As for the POV, it?s all about generating dreamy daydreams. One Direction is on the road, girl, and they?re missing you. But, as per the chorus: ?Baby, you don?t have to worry/ I?ll be coming back for you? ? provided you can score concert tickets. The sound, like most of the other pop jams on Take Me Home, is a big, stomping wallop of pop that swells to a massive finish.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Relationship status: The groupie that got away

12. ?They Don?t Know About Us?

Opening with the tinkling sound of piano keys ? a very ?90s R&B touch ? this love song starts old school: solo showboating, airgrabs and silk pajamas. But on the chorus, it?s time to go big ? new stylez. The volume swells, the piano starts to pound a slow stomp underneath layer upon layer of strings, and One Direction declares their secret love for each and every one of you. ?They don?t know about the up all nights,? they sing. (First album reference?) ?They don?t know I?ve waited all my life/ Just to find a love that feels this right/ Baby they don?t know about us.?

Rating: 4 out of 5

Relationship status: Teacher, mother, secret lover

13. Summer Love

After the showstopper that is ?They Don?t Know About Us,? it?s time to slow things down, girl ? and this tune ? Liam Payne?s favourite ? provides a cozy come-down. A countrified ballad ? thanks to some acoustic guitar and twangy harmonizing ? One Direction reminisce about, what else, an old summer fling. They don?t want her back, they just want to remember a beautiful season spent falling in love (while probably listening to a bunch of Robbie Williams records).

Rating: 3 out of 5

Relationship status: Summer romance, duh.

Take Me Home arrives in stores Nov. 13. Update: One Direction released an album sampler previewing snippets from the album today. Listen to it below:

Source: http://o.canada.com/2012/11/02/one-directions-take-me-home-track-by-track-review-canadian-exclusive/

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