One Direction’s highly anticipated fifth album, "Made In The A.M.," was released last Friday, and it’s safe to we are all losing our sanity over it. If you don’t run a fan Tumblr or Twitter or you refused to listen to leaks so you didn’t actually hear the album until the 13th, then kudos to you. As all super-fans know, One Direction albums have a tendency to find their way to fans a week or so before the actual release date. Let me start by saying this was the most “underground” leak yet. When leak week was finally upon us and fans who attended the official listening party violated legally binding contracts by secretly recording songs and uploading them to social media, Tumblr blew up. As shameful and awful as these leaks are, listening to MITAM in low quality Tumblr uploads riddled with screaming fans was almost worse than listening to the infamous Brazilian youth whisper “No Control” into your ears over God awful phone recordings of the entire album. Regardless of their horrid quality, the response to this album was incredible. Now that the album is officially out, it's time again for all your friends to say “I don’t like One Direction, but this song is pretty good." Yes, of course the song is good. The entire album is awesome, but there is such an blind stigma to liking One Direction fans might as well be associated with the plague.
One Direction has successfully done what many boy bands in the past could not, they've matured. They’ve gone from “We're like na, na, na then we're like yeah, yeah, yeah” to “for your eyes only, I show you my heart, for when you're lonely and forget who you are.” An album of catchy pop tunes to a deep piece of moving, lyrical genius. Since the majority of One Direction’s fan base is older now, we definitely don't want lunch boxes littered with pink stars and Harry’s face smack in the middle. It wasn’t cute five years ago and it’s definitely not cute now. I blame the majority of this stigma on One Direction’s marketing team. Their music finally speaks for itself and "Made in the A.M." absolutely represents all their talent and the constant hard work that they have put in for the past five years. As a super-fan, this album has been the soundtrack to my life since its release. It accompanies me on my walks to class, it's blasted through my roommate's speakers, and I'm listening whenever I am not required to interact with other humans. It’s riddled with upbeat yet lyrically beautiful songs that are contrasted by slow, heart-rendering songs with lyrics that bring fans to tears. With the impending hiatus, the shadow that has been haunting us all since its announcement, this album is more important than ever. We have no idea when we will get new music, but after the reactions to this album one thing is for sure, this isn't the last of One Direction.
