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Four (One Direction album)

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Untitled

Four (usually stylised as FOUR) is the fourth studio album by the English-Irish boy band One Direction, released on 17 November 2014 by Columbia Records and Syco Music.[1]

Background and development

On 27 April 2014, it was confirmed that One Direction were working on their fourth studio album.[2] Good Charlotte was reported to have collaborated with band members Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson for writing songs.[3] McFly members Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones and Dougie Poynter also teamed up with Niall Horan to write for the album. Rock band Kodaline wrote an "unrequited love song" with Harry Styles. Rock band The 1975 were also chosen by One Direction to work on the album. Other people involved in the album include singers John Legend and Emeli Sandé and producer Naughty Boy.[4] Payne claimed that the album would be "edgier" and that the group have written most of the songs for it.[5]

The name and cover of the album were announced on 8 September on One Direction's official website, along with a free download of a song called "Fireproof", which was available for 24 hours.[6] Horan stated that the reason for the free download was "because you have supported us so much, we wanted to give a little something back".[1] "Fireproof" was written by Payne and Tomlinson along with John Ryan, Jamie Scott and Julian Bunetta, who also wrote their single "Story of My Life".[7] In the 24-hour span, 1.1 million downloads were generated.[8] The song was put on the band's Vevo on 22 September.[9]

In an interview with Simon Cowell, it was revealed that one of the songs for the album will be titled "18". The song was written by Ed Sheeran, who also wrote "Little Things" and "Moments" for the group.[10][11]

Horan came up with the name of the album, commemorating the fact that it is the band's fourth album and that it has been four years since their formation.[12]

Tour

Main article: On the Road Again Tour

The On the Road Again Tour was announced on the morning program Today, where the band gave a pre-recorded interview releasing the details of their return to Australia. It was later announced that the band would also be touring Asia and Africa. The group will be making debuts for some countries, particularly in the United Arab Emirates.

On 24 October 2014, the official One Direction site announced several more tour dates, with shows across Europe, the US, and Canada.[13]

Singles

"Steal My Girl" was released as the album's first single. It was released on 29 September 2014 worldwide, except in the UK, where it was released on 19 October 2014.[14] "Night Changes" was released as the album's second single on 14 November 2014.[15]

Promotional singles

There were five promotional singles released on five different days; if fans pre-ordered the album, they got instant download of those songs.[16] "Ready to Run" was released as the first promotional single on November 6.[17] "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" was released as the second promotional single on November 10.[18] "18" was released as the third promotional single on November 11.[19] "Girl Almighty" was released as the fourth promotional single on November 12.[20] "Fool's Gold" was released as the fifth promotional single on November 13.[21]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic66/100[22]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[23]
The A.V. ClubB-[24]
Billboard[25]
The Guardian[26]
New York Daily News[27]
Irish Independent[28]
The Observer[29]
Slant Magazine[30]
The Daily Telegraph[31]
The Daily of the University of Washington[32]

Four received mixed-to-positive reviews from music critics. Some argued Payne's songwriting showed signs of maturity, while others claimed the musical content was too similar to the band's previous work. On Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100, the album received a score of 66, which indicates generally favorable reviews.

Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph found "an unlikely comparison to Bruce Springsteen in the quintet's latest offering", and that Four was "hard to dislike: it's cheery, uplifting, high spirited and good fun", but did still say it was "songwriting by numbers". AllMusic's review said it was the group's "fourth well-crafted, packed-with-great-pop-songs album in a row", although did cynically point out the pattern of each of said albums being released just in time for "optimal holiday-season gift-giving". Tshepo Mokoena of The Guardian gave the album a more mixed review of three-stars, again drawing comparisons with Springsteen but with the caveat of being "hardly groundbreaking pop", and Jim Faber of the New York Daily News also gave three stars and praised the group for "confronting their limiations" but at the same time questioned why whilst doing so they spent "so much time looking back with longing", pointed out an apparent "anxiety" and expressed disappointment that whilst Four represents a step forward in their history, it "represents a step back in both sound and sensibility".

More negative reviews came from Chuck Arnold of Billboard magazine and James Rainis of Slant Magazine, both awarding just two-and-a-half stars. The former claimed "One Direction aren't ready to let go of their bubble-gum days", whilst Rainis ended his take by saying "The album's irresistibly obvious choruses, hackneyed sentiments, and puppy-eyed earnestness can come off as endearing when the songwriting is clever enough, but every misstep is, despite the band's efforts to assert more control over their music, a painful reminder of One Direction's status as a manufactured, focus-grouped pop entity."

Commercial performance

After the announcement of the album, the deluxe edition of Four became the top charted album on iTunes in around 67 countries.[33][34] The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts on the week ending November 23, 2014 with sales of 387,000 copies. In doing so they became the third group to have their four studio albums debut at number one after The Monkees and The Kingston Trio and the sixth overall artist to achieve this feat.[35] On 23 November 2014, the album debuted atop the UK Albums Chart, with 142,000 copies sold during its first week on sale, and concurrently scored them their third consecutive number one album.[36]

Track listing

Four – standard edition[1][37]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Steal My Girl"
  • Julian Bunetta
  • Pär Westerlund
  • John Ryan
3:48
2."Ready to Run"
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
3:16
3."Where Do Broken Hearts Go"
  • Julian Bunetta
  • Pär Westerlund
  • Teddy Geiger
3:49
4."18"
4:08
5."Girl Almighty"
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • S. Pages Mehner
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
  • Alexander Oriet[a]
3:22
6."Fool's Gold"
  • Matt Rad
  • Jamie Scott
  • Sam Miller[a]
3:31
7."Night Changes"
  • Scott
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • Horan
  • Malik
  • Styles
  • Payne
  • Tomlinson
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
3:47
8."No Control"
  • Tomlinson
  • Cunningham
  • Scott
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • Julian Bunetta
  • Ian Franzino
  • John Ryan
  • Afterhrs
3:20
9."Fireproof"
  • Payne
  • Tomlinson
  • Ryan
  • Scott
  • Bunetta
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
  • Ben "Bengineer" Chang[b]
2:54
10."Spaces"
  • Tomlinson
  • Payne
  • Scott
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • Julian Bunetta
  • Afterhrs
  • John Ryan
4:17
11."Stockholm Syndrome"
  • Styles
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • Johan Carlsson
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
3:35
12."Clouds"
  • Tomlinson
  • Payne
  • Malik
  • Scott
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
3:52
Four – deluxe edition[40]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
13."Change Your Ticket"
  • Julian Bunetta
  • Afterhrs
4:26
14."Illusion"
  • Payne
  • Scott
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
3:14
15."Once in a Lifetime"
  • Scott
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
2:38
16."Act My Age"
  • Bunetta
  • Drewett
  • Ryan
  • Julian Bunetta
  • John Ryan
3:18
Four – iTunes Store deluxe edition (pre-order only)[40]
No.TitleLength
17."One Direction: Behind the Photo Shoot (BTS footage)" 
Four – Japanese version (bonus tracks)[42]
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
13."Steal My Girl" (Big Payno & Aftrhrs Pool Party Remix)
  • Tomlinson
  • Payne
  • Hector
  • Bunetta
  • Drewett
  • Ryan
  • Bunetta
  • Westerlund
  • Ryan
  • Payne[a]
  • Aftrhrs[a]
5:20
14."Steal My Girl" (Acoustic Version)
  • Tomlinson
  • Payne
  • Hector
  • Julian Bunetta
  • Drewett
  • Ryan
  • Bunetta
  • Westerlund
  • Ryan
3:48
15."Story of My Life" (Live from San Siro)
  • Scott
  • Ryan
  • Horan
  • Malik
  • Payne
  • Styles
  • Tomlinson
  • Bunetta
  • Ryan
 
Notes
  • ^[a] signifies an additional producer
  • ^[b] signifies a vocal producer

Charts and certifications

Release history

Country Date Format(s) Edition(s) Label Ref.
Canada 17 November 2014
  • Standard
  • Deluxe
 Syco [85]
France [86]
Germany [87]
Italy [88]
United Kingdom [89]
United States Columbia [90]
Spain 18 November 2014 Syco [91]
Japan 19 November 2014 Sony [92]
United Kingdom 15 December 2014 Vinyl Standard Syco [93]

References

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