Why Niall Horan's new LP deserves as much hype as his former (boy)bandmate's
Bec Summer
STACK Writer
On 'The Show', Niall Horan demonstrates he gets what makes a pop song radiate above the rest.
As scorned a position as ’pop’ sometimes finds itself in, every now and then an album from this genre will bob to the surface of the sardine-packed pool, which maybe even the grimiest of Juggalos would have a hard time mocking with convincing venom.
That’s the basket in which The Show – the third record from solo singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Niall Horan – sits, and it’s because the 29-year-old Irishman knows how to write songs that aren’t just a constant blast of giddy sun in your face.
In Horan’s musical world, clouds shift and beams bend and melodies coil away into places you wouldn’t have predicted.
If You Leave Me taps into the style of ’80s classics like a-Ha’s Take on Me; Meltdown offers a super spry beat then bastes it in deluxe harmonies and heartache. Never Grow Up gives Rex Orange County or Dominic Fike vibes in its laid-back beat full of extra crushed notes, built on a series of vocal fragments vocoded and turned into rhythm. The title track (and the album’s centrepiece) is full of bittersweetness, and pulses in the depths of the piano along with rumbling kettle drums and strings that arc upwards like birds.
Save My Life is a love song out of time, its breezy sax solo and electric guitar line conjuring ’90s sitcom opening credits – but the cheese just stays in check. Stand-out On a Night Like Tonight puts a Bitter Sweet Symhony-esque beat with belted harmonies, and basslines that curl and dip instead of plodding along the melody’s path.
Beginning on acoustic guitar, You Could Start a Cult (our new favourite way of expressing a lover’s allure) features a simple harmonica solo in its middle eight. Is it Niall playing? We already know he’s not bad on the harp thanks to his 2017 stint on Jimmy Fallon’s ’Instant Song Challenge’ (we’re still shouting ”You gotta witness the fitness” six years later), but regardless, you don’t have to be Enola Holmes to make the right guess because we hear Horan’s little inhale before the harmonica’s first wail.
And it’s an important detail: While the majority of The Show is spotlessly produced, it’s details like that breath, or the sound of the piano hammers creaking in the wonderful Science, that show Horan has no interest in polishing every fissure to a sheen.
Horan has well and truly proven he has the goods to go it alone – The Show deserves to propel him to the uppermost tiers of pop stardom.
The Show by Niall Horan drops via Universal.
The Show is coming!
^Discounts apply to previous ticketed/advertised price prior to the discount offer. As we negotiate, products will likely have been sold below ticketed/advertised price prior to the discount offer. Prices may differ at airport stores.
