This week’s music features former One Direction band members Harry Styles, Liam Payne and a collaboration between SASSY 009 and Clairo.
This Week’s Music is a weekly column that discusses the weeks’ best, worst, and most interesting songs. We try to select songs of different artists and genres to keep things interesting and to please a variety of music fans.
This week’s new releases are a dream for One Direction fans, featuring new tracks from Liam Payne and Harry Styles. There’s also a collaboration between SASSY 009 and Clairo. Have a listen.
Pop
Liam Payne – Live Forever
Unlike his former One Direction band mates, Liam Payne is stagnant. While Zayn went out of his way to prove that he’s an adult who has sex, singing about it in every song, his range and charisma allows for some forgiveness; Niall Horan is singing cheesy rock; Harry Styles is making the best music out of all, putting out a rock album and now a pop album, all boasting his personality and flair. But Liam Payne is singing as if this were a David Guetta song from 2009, showing no evolution in vocals or sound.
Harry Styles – Adore You
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There’s nothing revolutionary about “Adore You.” The music and lyrics are simple, with standard romantic lines like “I’d walk through fire for you,” and “just let me adore you.” Still, the song, supported by Styles’ rock vocals, its easy arrangements of guitars and percussion, and spot on back up voice work, sounds surprisingly well. It’s smooth and cohesive. It also doesn’t hurt that the music video is narrated by Rosalia, because that’s just showing off.
Indie
SASSY 009 & Clairo – Lara
“Lara” starts off great. With an edgy and brittle sound, the music rises and your senses are flooded with a variety of lovely arrangements. But once the first chorus is over the inventiveness is off and it’s just more of the same. It’s not a bad song, but Clairo’s solo work has more depth and shine.
