One Direction made in the A.M.

Too bad if you missed the telecast of the American Music Awards early this week. Try to catch the replays if you can or go to YouTube. I say this because their performance at the AMAs is the last time you will see One Direction together on stage. The boy group, while still reeling from Zayn Malik’s sudden departure in the middle of their Asian tour, announced a break after the release of their fifth album.

That album is here and that one-year break has now begun. That is, unless these Brit kids do something too juicy for the gossip columns to resist or in the most tempting possibility for boy groups with nothing to do, start solo careers. But if they stay good and quiet, you can expect only silence from One Direction (or 1D) from now on and throughout 2016.

Well, not really silence because I am sure all 1D fans out there will be listening to the new album. Titled Made In The A.M. and including 13 new tracks, it is every bit a worthy swan song, hopefully only temporary, for one of the most popular boy bands of all time. 

One of the many good things that can be said about One Direction is that Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horam, Liam Payne and Harry Styles still have to come up with a bad album. All of those that came before Made In The A.M. were well-produced commercial efforts that easily reached No. 1.

These were: Up All Night with the hits, What Makes You Beautiful and Gotta Be You; Take Me Home with Live While We’re Young and Little Things; Midnight Memories with Best Thing Ever and Story Of My Life; and Four with SteaI My Girl and Night Changes.

As all of those who have listened to them surely know by now, each new album is always better than the previous one and Made In The A.M. is now their best. These boys have matured into their craft and now approach the process of creating music with confidence. They know what they like, what works well with them and in the case of this particular album, they have the added challenge that things will still work well even without Malik.

It works very well. The album is easy pop rock with a sweet ’80s vibe provided by cleverly arranged combination of synths and strings. The songwriting is at its most diverse with impressive takes on various styles and the boys are credited as co-writers in nine cuts. Despite some surprising vocal experiments as a foursome, the harmonies are spot on.

Best of the lot are Perfect, the Harry-penned new single that stays and stays in your head and the ballads I Want To Write You A Song, What A Feeling and If I Could Fly. There are really no bad cuts in the album. It is a complete, enjoyable package that already makes me curious as to what sounds One Direction will come back with.

And now, for an idea for what else is selling as this year comes to a close, here are the Top 20 titles in the Billboard charts. Don’t worry if One Direction is not included. These are this week’s listings, during which 1D’s latest has just hit the market.

The Top 20 singles in the Hot 100 are: Hello by Adele; Hotline Bling by Drake; Sorry by Justin Bieber; The Hills by The Weeknd; Stitches by Shawn Mendes; What Do You Mean? also by Bieber; 679 by Fetty Wap feat. Remy Boyz; Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift; Like I’m Gonna Lose You by Meghan Trainor and John Legend; Ex’s & Oh’s by Elle King.

Here by Alessia Cara; Can’t Feel My Face by The Weeknd; Focus by Ariana Grande; Same Old Love by Selena Gomez; On My Mind by Ellie Goulding; Jumpman by Drake & Future; Locked Away by R. City feat. Adam Levine; Watch Me by Silento; Lean On by Major Lazer & DJ Snake feat. Mo; and Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton.

The top albums are: Traveler by Chris Stapleton; Mr. Misunderstood by Eric Church; Delirium by Ellie Goulding; Beauty Behind The Madness by The Weeknd; Damn Country Music by Tim McGraw; 1 by The Beatles; Now 56 by Various Artists; Fetty Wap by Fetty Wap; Storyteller by Carrie Underwood; What’s lnside: Songs From Waitress by Sarah Bareilles.

In The Lonely Hour by Sam Smith; What A Time To Be Alive by Drake & Future; Get Weird by Little Mix; 1989 by Taylor Swift; Montevallo by Sam Hunt; Meat & Candy by Old Dominion; Tangled Up by Thomas Rhett; Revival by Selena Gomez; That’s Christmas To Me by Pentatonix; and Title by Meghan Trainor.