#four release

As soon as One Direction's senior album, FOUR, hit the stands (or the internet), people went absolutely wild. Some may have heard it after it was leaked, while others heard it when it (legally) came out, but wherever people heard it, they had something to say. One Direction spoke about the album saying that this was the one they felt the most proud of, and rightfully so. They feel the music has grown as they and their fans have and I believe it has. USA Today says "From start to finish, Four is as fine an album as 1D has made, one that builds on the group's earlier success while moving it forward," and when my mother presented me with the article, I could not agree more. I, an avid "directioner", am absolutely thrilled with the album and am happy to see that people who disliked or were not initially One Direction fans are responding so positively as well. Now, before conclusions are jumped to, I would like to state that my music taste does not consist merely of the American Top 40. (While I can probably loudly and awfully sing every word to those songs, I can also rap every word to plenty of songs, jam out on my air guitar to my dad's oldies, and sit in my room singing indie and indie rock songs. My music taste ranges from Vance Joy, Lana del Rey, and The 1975 to the Rolling Stones, The Eagles, and Johnny Cash to Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, and Cole Swindell to Lil Wayne, Big Sean, and Eminem to Timeflies and Icona Pop (to name a few) BUT I very much enjoy my fair share of typical pop music, including that of One Direction.)

Although pop may be One Direction's usual classification, this album may be a game changer. It is a bit of an indie rock type of album, but it still includes a few electronic poppy beats. The transition from Up All Night to FOUR, is quite evident and absolutely incredible. All of the boys wrote songs for the album, and Louis and Niall have emerged from the depths of "background-singing" and very few solos to a very fair amount, Niall even playing guitar on this album. All of the boys' vocals have improved and the change is easy to see.

To state the facts may appeal to you, or opinions might. The newspapers and magazines love it, the band loves it, the One Direction fandom loves it, plenty of other people love it, and if you can't tell I REALLY LOVE IT. Friends of mine who have labeled One Direction as dumb or thought they were too mainstream to listen to are eating their words (along with the new music I've shoved down their throat - oops). This album is incredible and I honestly have yet to hear one person contradict that.

The quality of the actual music is amazing and put that together with the meaningful, creative, and oh-so-catchy lyrics, and the album has rightfully taken its place at number one on the iTunes chart.

As I sit in my room listening to it for the I-don't-know-how-many-times-but-probably-the-44th time I can't bring myself to get sick of it, and I really hope everyone who listens realizes that this album is ACTUALLY really high-quality music. If you can't realize and accept that, I hope you also realize that One Direction is doing well despite the few bad reviews in the midst of millions of good ones, and they are not going anywhere.