STACK #224 June 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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style of ’80s classics like a-Ha’s Take on Me ; Meltdown offers a super spry beat then bastes it in deluxe harmonies and heartache. Never Grow Up gives Rex Orange County or Dominic Fike vibes in its laid-back beat full of extra crushed notes, built on a series of vocal fragments vocoded album’s centrepiece) is full of bittersweetness, and pulses in the depths of the piano along with rumbling kettle drums and strings that arc upwards like birds. Save My Life is a love song out of time, its breezy sax solo and electric guitar line conjuring ’90s sitcom and turned into rhythm. The title track (and the

Top - bottom: Two Aussies with their thumbs in The Show pie: M-Phazes and Ruel.

opening credits – but the cheese just stays in check. Stand-out On a Night Like Tonight puts a Bitter Sweet Symhony -esque beat with belted harmonies, and basslines that curl and dip instead of plodding along the melody’s path. Beginning on acoustic guitar, You Could Start a Cult (our new favourite way of expressing a lover’s allure) features a simple harmonica solo in its middle eight. Is it Niall playing? We already know he’s not bad on the harp thanks to his 2017 stint on Jimmy Fallon’s ’Instant Song Challenge’ (we’re still shouting ”You gotta witness the fitness” six years later), but regardless, you don’t have to be Enola Holmes to make the right guess because we hear Horan’s little inhale before the harmonica’s first wail. And it’s an important detail: While

The Show by Niall Horan is out Jun 9 via Universal.

the majority of The Show is spotlessly produced, it’s details like that breath, or the sound of the piano hammers creaking in the wonderful Science , that show Horan has no interest in polishing every fissure to a sheen. Horan has well and truly proven he has the goods to go it alone – The Show deserves to propel him to the uppermost tiers of pop stardom.

NIALL STYLE On The Show , Niall Horan demonstrates his unique understanding of what makes a certain pop song radiate above the rest. Words Bec Summer

WITH A LI ’ L HELP FROM MY

FRIENDS Though Niall contributed his songwriting talents to every track on The Show , the album boasts an impressive little collection of co-writers, including our own pop prince Ruel and production legend M-Phazes (on You Could Start a Cult ), and Kiwi producer/ writer-for-the-stars Joel Little (Lorde, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo) on opener Heaven .

A s scorned a position as ’pop’ sometimes finds itself in, every now and then an album from this genre will bob to the surface of the sardine-packed pool, which maybe even the grimiest of Juggalos has a hard time mocking with convincing venom. That’s the basket in which The Show – the third record from solo singer-songwriter and

multi-instrumentalist Niall Horan – sits, and it’s because the 29-year-old Irishman knows how to write songs that aren’t just a constant blast of giddy sun in your face. In Horan’s musical world, clouds shift and beams bend and melodies coil away into places you wouldn’t have predicted. The spirited If You Leave Me taps into the

THIRD TIME ’ S THE CHARM? When The Show lands this month, Niall will have a crack at nabbing his third solo number one album. The Show ’s predecessor, Heartbreak Weather (2020), blitzed to the top of the UK and Irish album charts (missing out by a smidgeon here in Oz, hitting number two), while his debut Flicker (2017) made it to number one in the US, Canada, and Ireland... but was again pipped at the post in Australia, reaching number two. Will the third time be the charm in achieving the top spot on the ARIA chart?

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82 JUNE 2023

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