On “Walls,” Louis Tomlinson steps into a pop landscape very different from that of 2016, when One Direction announced its hiatus. The other members have since cracked through their mold…
announced its hiatus. The other members have since cracked through their molds and carved their own identities away from the band: Zayn Malik was out the door before 1D hit the pause button, and had already formulated a moody R&B persona. Harry Styles spiked the dad-rock kool-aid, and proved himself deserving of the starring role. Niall Horan leapt headlong into folk-pop, and Liam Payne hung out with Quavo and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.
The eagerness to live in a golden-hued past makes sense as a response to Tomlinson’s life leading up to the record’s creation. Tragedy could be factor in the late delivery of “Walls,” compared to his bandmates’ solo debuts. Tomlinson’s grief and growth after the passing of his mother in 2016 figures into the album’s centerpiece, the piano-driven “2 of Us.
Elsewhere, Tomlinson tries to evoke the glory days of the ‘90s without a strong, single, unifying inspiration to lean on. Opener “Kill My Mind” sets the modernized Britpop tone, the familiar cymbal-heavy percussion threaded through with polished harmonies. “You kill my mind / Raise my body back to life / And I don’t know what I’d do without you now,” he repeats on the chorus, devoid of the pain or passion those words imply.
A switch is flipped on the buoyant strumming of “Habit”, a track that reaches festival-field grandiosity in subtle instrumentation and real emotional depth. “Never thought that giving up would be so hard / But God, I’m missing you and your addictive heart,” he sings. He doesn’t need to belt it out, or layer it over a trap beat and EDM synths. This is Tomlinson not trying to be anything or anyone else.
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