Setting aside our jealousy for whoever this girl is, "Diana" proved that 1D could be just as anthemic as they switched their sound from pop to pop-rock. And with a nice spelling lesson during the bridge, it's def not as sexy as it's making itself out to be - even against its "We Will Rock You"-lite beat.
"Rock Me" is pretty repetitive and chanty as far as 1D songs go, and that's saying something. But don't start a song with "When I'm fat and old " we're not It's the Irish dancing song/ Pirates of the Caribbean theme song hybrid we didn't know we If "Up All Night" from their first album grew up and joined an '80s cover band, bought a leather jacket, and got a YOLO tattoo, then you'd get "Midnight Memories." As it is, this title track probably best belongs on the next edition of Guitar Hero.Ī decent but ultimately safe ballad, "Same Mistakes" is a nice reprieve from the dance-heavy second half of this album. But it's sweet and decidedly not annoying, like some of the other ones ranked lower on this list. If we're talking ballads, "Change My Mind" isn't 1D's most memorable. In another life, Jason Derulo would have taken this song and made it the club beat it deserved to be. It's undoubtedly the best part of the track - and perhaps one of the best parts of all of Midnight Memories. The title might be too generous, but this mostly inoffensive song's biggest fault is burying Louis's powerhouse (and heartbreaking) solo at the very end.
But has it held up over the years? Surely not. Sure, 1D's second-ever single was a rockin' power ballad in its time, and it foreshadowed Liam's destiny as the group's go-to falsetto guy. The only non-original song on this list, this mashup - recorded as a charity single - is a passable (albeit catchy) rehash of ~iconic~ '70s punk band Blondie's covered-to-death "One Way or Another" and Irish rock band The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks." Otherwise, nothing special. "One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks)," recorded for Red Nose Day 2013 But four years later, closer inspection forces us to ask: What do they mean by "stand up"? There's a "stand off" and there's a "stick up," but we're not quite sure what a "stand up" is…Īs you'd expect from the title, this is baby Direction at their neediest and brattiest. "Stand Up," Up All Night ( bonus track)Īh, the jam - circa 2011, of course. And why, pray tell, are they walking around with one shoe?Ĩ4.
Starting off sounding almost exactly like their (only slightly more superior) "More Than This," this might be the sappiest of all their ballads. "Half a Heart," Midnight Memories ( bonus track) So it's for the best that they kept this track off the standard release, since it's the only one that sounds like a boy band playing pretend.Ĩ6. Midnight Memories proved that 1D could do rock, and do it well. "Alive," Midnight Memories ( bonus track) "We're like na na na / then we're like yeah yeah yeah." Enough said.Ĩ7. Unfortunately, you'd be better off listening to Chris Martin and co. Surely you know that Harry is a renowned fan of Coldplay, the obvious sonic inspiration for this ballad. "Another World," Up All Night (bonus track)īet you didn't even know this song existed, did you?Ĩ9. These guys have changed the world and left some genuinely great songs in their wake.90. And if you think that there’s nothing more 1D than pretty faces and a gazillion-dollar merchandise industry, then read on and learn. Scroll through our Top 20, then vote for your favourite One Direction song in our online ranker poll. Following our in-depth run-downs of the best Taylor Swift songs, the best Rihanna songs and the best Eminem songs, we’ve raided all four One Direction albums to pick 1D’s greatest hits and best deep cuts. So here it is: the definitive list of the 20 best One Direction songs. It seems a good moment to look back at what Harry, Louis, Niall, Liam and (sob) Zayn have achieved so far. Now One Direction are returning to London for the first time as a four-piece, headlining Wembley Stadium for the Capital FM Summertime Ball. Zayn Malik quit One Direction, ending the original line-up of the twenty-first century’s biggest pop phenomenon. On March 25 2015, the world of pop was torn apart.