With shrieks for One Direction softening into pained whispers, 2015 is surely the year in which another act could seize on Harry, Liam, Niall and Louis’s potential demise. An album six years in the making – from its beginning in a caravan, to the arrival of Justin Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, and a vast songwriting team (including Stargate, Ed Sheeran, Wayne Hector, Benny Blanco, Mike Posner and Ammar Malik), the Manchester quartet’s debut is a US-oriented accumulation of popular pop forms: reggae-lite on Me and My Broken Heart; a Script-like guitar ballad, Beautiful Excuses; the essential a cappella track. It’s surprisingly soulful, and bereft of the puppyish buoyancy of other Brit boybands. If 1D do step down, success is there for the taking; but Let the Road doesn’t exactly make it sound like Rixton are wrestling for it.
• This article was amended on 5 June 2015. The original review incorrectly listed Zayn Malik as one of Rixton’s songwriting team.
