Music

One Direction recalls The Who, Stones in ‘Midnight Memories’

Album of the Week

One Direction
“Midnight Memories”
★★½

Hating the English boy band One Direction seems like a waste of energy. Then again, so does adoring them. They’re squeaky clean in a dull way, but they’ve got enough cheek to rescue them from being offensive, and the songs are insistent without blaring too stupidly. That said, the songs on their new album are more good than great (and more decent than good), and the production gives everything the consistency of Malt-O-Meal. Funnily enough, the high points are flagrant hat-tips to classic rock: the winking-at-The Who rip “Best Song Ever,” and the Stones-like power chords of “Little Black Dress.” Making boomers mad while making kids happy — a worthwhile trick.

Downloads of the Week

Bruce Springsteen
“High Hopes”
★★

The title track from Springsteen’s next album — out Jan. 14 — “High Hopes” sounds a lot like a Bruce song, even though it was written by Tim Scott McConnell. But it doesn’t sound enough like Bruce at his sharpest. It’s an anthem without much bite, and the canned-sounding horn chart makes it seem even more toothless.

U2
“Ordinary Love”
★½

Though the overblown Irish rock superstars are working on a new album, this new tune is from the “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” soundtrack. We hope the new album isn’t like this: Bono’s falsetto grates, and the chorus sounds like a theme-song-writing audition for Nick Jr.

Pharrell Williams
“Happy”
★½

Along with Bob Dylan’s interactive “Like a Rolling Stone” video, last week’s big news was the 24-hour video for this song, from Pharrell’s 2014 album. Mercifully, the song lasts just four minutes. But even then, this insipid track is too long — so slight, it practically evaporates before it reaches your ears.

Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones
“Long Time Gone”
★★½

Norah Jones has dueted with loads of singers over the years, but for Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, an album of Everly Brothers duets is a surprising left turn. Also surprising: He’s right at home on this song, sounding hushed and modest rather than full of his usual sneering bombast.

Santana Feat. Juanes
“La Flaca”
★★½

Santana’s been on cruise control ever since 1999’s “Supernatural” resuscitated his modern-day brand — plug in a big-name guest singer and let Carlos wail on guitar. The results are never great but better than they should be, and this collaboration with Colombian star Juanes — like a Spanish-language “Smooth” — is no exception.

Pitbull Feat. Kelly Rowland
“That High”


“I’m not the best, I’m better/They’re smart, but I’m clever,” Pitbull raps on this bonus track from the deluxe edition of his album “Global Warming.” Not better or clever enough, though. The track is by-the-numbers electro-grind. Rowland’s guest hook feels like an outtake. And the star sounds like a jerk.

Destroyer
“Bye Bye”
★★★

Cult indie-rock singer-songwriter Dan Bejar’s main project, Destroyer, moves away from the winking yacht-rock of 2011’s “Kaputt” on the modestly scaled “Five Spanish Songs,” an EP of songs by Antonio Luque of Spain alt-rockers Sr. Chinarro. “Bye Bye” is a soft-sung lullaby over acoustic guitars — slight, but quite lovely.

Neneh Cherry
“Blank Project”
★★

Still best known for “Buffalo Stance,” Cherry’s music ranges widely — see her 2011 album with jazz trio the Thing. On this title-track teaser for her new album, out next year, she sings over brainy electronic producer Four Tet’s hurtling bass pulse. It’s impressively bracing, but too one-note to go back to very much.

Danielle Bradbery
“The Heart of Dixie”
★½

The 17-year-old country-singing, fourth-season winner of NBC’s “The Voice,” Bradbery has a startlingly full voice with little real personality; it lives and dies with its material. In the case of this lead single from her self-titled debut album, it’s a Hallmark card with banjos. A voice alone is not enough.