Louis Tomlinson doesn’t just wear his influences on his sleeve, but all the way up his arm. It works against him. The former One Direction star’s debut album, Walls, is a watered-down version of an Oasis record – a photocopy of a fax of a tracing of Definitely Maybe.
That’s not to say it’s a bad album, exactly. Given that Tomlinson is the last of his former bandmates to release a solo LP, it seems safe to assume that he’s put some thought into it. “Too Young”, with an ever-so-slight country twang to its plucked guitar, is contemplative if corny, while “Fearless” is a sturdy, lighters-in-the-air anthem that ponders the effects of wealth. The problem is, the album – so full of drawling balladry and anodyne lyrics – is deeply unremarkable. Listening to it is like wading through a quagmire of banality.
There are two exceptions. “We Made It” is an irresistibly earnest trip down memory lane to the early days of his relationship with on-off girlfriend Eleanor. “Share a single bed and tell each other what we dream about/ Things we’d never say to someone else out loud,” he sings over twangy guitar strumming (there is lots of that here). Later in the song, he ponders the effects of being in the biggest pop band on the planet with a little more grace than Liam Payne managed (“Used to be in 1D, now I’m out, free,” sang Payne on the truly appalling “Strip That Down”). “Nothing in the world I would change it for/ Singing something poppy on the same four chords/ Used to worry ’bout it but I don’t no more.” It’s sweet and frank – though to be honest, there aren’t many more than four chords here, either.
The second exception is “2 of Us”. With orchestral murmurs and a beat like a pulsing heart, it is a song about loss. Tomlinson’s mother died from leukaemia in 2016; his sister, Felicite, died last year at the age of 18. “You’ll never know how much I miss you,” he sings. “The day that they took you, I wish it was me instead.”
But before long, the lad-rock is back in full swing. Tomlinson says he was influenced, lyrically, by Alex Turner and Amy Winehouse. But it’s hard to imagine either of them writing something like, “I guess some queens don’t need a crown”, from patronising empowerment anthem “Perfect Now”. According to the press material, “Don’t Let it Break Your Heart” boasts “his most addictive chorus to date”. I have already forgotten it.
“I know I’ve made an album my fans will like,” said Tomlinson in the run-up to Walls’ release. He may well be right. I’m just not sure who else will.
