10 hours ago, -Jay- said:

This song, and honestly the overall package, isn't doing much of anything for me at all. I don't like or dislike the song, it's inoffensively straight down the middle - and very dated! Debuting with a close retread of One Direction's Up All Night era... this doesn't say much for them having a fresh or exciting identity of their own. What it does seem to suggest, more so, is that Simon thinks what worked back then, can work again. Maybe it will, we'll see.

This project comes across to me as Simon wanting to prove that he still has the midas touch, and grasping for relevance for himself. This front cover gave me such a huge ick...

Basically my thoughts too. The fact he’s shoehorned himself into the centre of their promo and even had the documentary named after HIM suggests this project is more about him than them. 🤷 The 1D-lite debut written by the 1D writing camp is the biggest eye roll. There was me thinking we were about to get a Beautiful Things-level song. 😂

Also the 7 isn’t working for me. I think they should’ve dropped Danny and the Irish guy tbh.

At the moment I’m getting more Union J than One Direction. An album full of One Direction cast off’s (if they get that far) and dropped like a stone when their 15 minutes is up.

I’m getting more Stereo Kicks tbh. 🥲

I like the song, it's really fun and I'll get a good few plays out of it - can't resist a fun, catchy boyband track, and it's very early 1D which sonically is great to my ears.

As a band, I'm struggling to buy into them, for many of the reasons Jay shared so eloquently. It feels like a Simon vanity project above all else (that magazine cover is insane), with damage control after some pretty disastrous interviews regarding One Direction over the years, and no real standing in modern music for a while now. This song does feel a lot like rehashing what worked the first time round, at the expense of any real identity for the group themselves. They're talented vocalists, but they don't really work as a package for me, and the TV show didn't convince me that there's chemistry running through the group.

I do hope they're able to make use of their talent soon and make music that represents them. They're obviously not breaking through commercially just yet, almost nobody gets a hit with their debut single these days, but I think they'll need to stand out more to really make an impact.

That said, I'll keep bopping in the meantime x