Those qualities nod to other established 1D traditions: knowing rips from other artists’ songs (such as “Best Song Ever’s” near-duplication of the synth riff from “Baba O’Riley” by the Who) and lyrics that fans might plausibly conclude are really about them. ![]() Lyrically, “Drag Me Down” starts out as velvety word soup - “I got a river for a soul, and baby you’re a boat,” sings Harry Styles - before solidifying into an ode to a steadfast lover who “stood by me when no one else was ever behind me.” ![]() Sonically, we’re basically talking about a midtempo pop-rock jam with springy guitars that recall the Police (or, if we’re being less charitable, the band Magic! in its 2014 hit “Rude”). The first taste from the group’s fifth studio album, promised in November, “Drag Me Down” breaks from One Direction’s established tradition of splashy introductions it’s decidedly smaller-scaled than “Steal My Girl,” the swaggering lead cut from last year’s “Four,” or the mock-heroic “ Best Song Ever,” from 2013’s “Midnight Memories.” 1 on Apple Music too.) And despite those impressive statistics, the future looks surprisingly modest. You get a clearer picture of tomorrow’s One Direction from the band’s new single, “Drag Me Down,” which appeared online late last week and, according to Spotify, set a record for the most streams in a single day on that service with more than 4.75 million. The performance felt like one of those doctored family photos from which somebody’s ex-husband has been crudely chopped. None of One Direction’s remaining members said a word about their former mate, and none of the music or staging seemed to have been updated in Malik’s absence. ![]() Sure, One Direction, the hugely popular British boy band, has been playing concerts for months as a four-piece following the headline-generating departure of Zayn Malik, who said in March that he needed “some private time out of the spotlight.” But when I saw the group recently at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego - the first North American date of a world tour that began before Malik split - what struck me was how little the show was doing to acknowledge the band’s fresh configuration.
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