One Direction
The boy band's third effort blatantly apes '70s and '80s rock hits from The Who (Best Song Ever), Def Leppard (Midnight Memories) and Rick Springfield (Does He Know?). They've taken residence as writers – Louis Tomlinson being one of the names behind nearly every track including the catchy balladery of Strong, Harry Styles with Mumford-tinged Happily that promises to be fun live. Vocally they're infinitely stronger, especially Zayn Malik's ever-expanding range, displayed in a soaring falsetto in You And I. Midnight Memories is a genre lucky dip and thematically safe, but damn it, it sounds like they're having fun.
