1D pay more United Kingdom tax than Facebook

But one person who wasn’t surprised by Zayn Malik’s exit from the group was the band’s mentor, Simon Cowell, 56.

In their five years together the group has sold more than 50 million records, have achieved a total of 91 number ones and performed to over 7.5 million fans worldwide. A true fan can cue up a Harry high note on command, but ask a layperson to pick out a Niall solo and you’ll be met with a confused stare. After months of nonstop hype, they released their fifth studio record, Made in the A.M.

Yet One Direction has always been best at its most lighthearted; the band’s offhand vibe is what sets it apart from its more deliberate boy-band predecessors.

The band’s previous album, Four, revealed the type of growth that earned its continued domination of the pop charts.

They are expecting that the album will be a great seller and especially when the 1D fans are going to be nostalgic about the break the band is taking for an indefinite time.

“I knew Zayn was going before it happened”, Cowell candidly revealed to the magazine.

Overall, One Direction fails to include anything as good as Four’s “Steal My Girl” or its predecessor, Midnight Memories’, hit “Story of My Life”, but they do produce a solid collection of stadium pop to satisfy any die-hard 1D fan as the band prepares for an its impending hiatus. A nice idea, but it probably still just means “morning”, guys.

The weird experimental pit of ballad and folk is not very bad, but it exposes One Direction’s bland lyrics, which are forgiven or go unnoticed in catchier songs.

I am sure I sound like a few One Direction Scrooge, or an overly confident hipster, but I think (I hope) that there are others out there that can see past the boy band doozey and listen to One Direction’s music for what it is.

“Obviously when you get the finished product, a voice that was there before isn’t there anymore, so obviously that’s different”, Harry Styles told People. They are in their 20s – it’s tough and it’s my job to be there’. One Direction, you’ve had to endure quite a lot this year, but at the end of the day, the music is all that matters.

I remember streaming the album on my train down to Cambridge for my interview. If there were one too many “grown up’ songs, “Never Enough” makes the twentysomethings feel youthful again, in a positive regard”. The epitome is “I Want to Write You a Song,”whose slow hymn is only a faux attempt to add meaning to bland and childlike lyrics like “I want to build you a boat / One that’s as strong as you are free”. With that in mind, here are the key classic rock (and more) callbacks across Made in the A.M.