Made in the A.M.

Background

The album was announced on 22 September 2015. Following the release of its lead single, "Drag Me Down", it was revealed that the group would go on a temporary hiatus in 2016 to take a break. On 22 September, the title for the fifth studio album, Made in the A.M., was officially announced along with promotional single "Infinity" being released. The group began to reveal the track listing on their Snapchat stories to which it was later confirmed on iTunes. The band members all agreed that this album was the best work out of their other efforts due to their main involvement with writing and composition for the majority of the songs.

Julian Bunetta, the producer behind many of the group's songs, told Billboard that the fifth album was recorded with the four members knowing it would be their last for a while. "There was a feeling of, 'Well, we’re going to take a break, and anything in the world can happen during that time off,' adding "There's a song about losing someone that isn't Zayn. There's also a song about the band being on shaky ground and not knowing what the future is. There are songs about love, there's a song that is a little more sexually charged. It's all over the map."

Singles

"Drag Me Down" was spontaneously released as the album's lead single on 31 July 2015, with no previous promotion or warning. It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, breaking the record for the most streamed song in its first week, with 2.03 million plays. In the United States, the song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 350,000 downloads in its first week, earning the band their largest sales week ever. "Drag Me Down" also broke and set a new Vevo record by having the fastest and most likes earned in 24 hours. "Perfect" was serviced as the album's second single on 16 October 2015. The song debuted at number two in the UK and number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The debut gave the band their fifth top 10 start on the Hot 100, passing the record among groups of four debuts, previously held by The Beatles. It went to #1 in 82 countries on the 1st day of its release.

"Infinity" was issued as a promotional single on the iTunes Store and Apple Music on 22 September 2015. "What a Feeling" was released as the second promotional single, two days prior the album's release date.

Although "Infinity" was announced as the album's third single by member Liam Payne, "History" was later confirmed as the next single. On 27 January 2016, the official music video for "History" was released to the One Direction Vevo channel and YouTube. It peaked at number six on the UK Official Chart in 2016.

Critical reception

Made in the A.M. has received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 from selected independent ratings and reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a Metascore of 65, based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews."

Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph found that a "slight tone of weariness may have crept into 1D's lyrics with songs about break-ups and yearning for home" but concluded that the music remains "anthemic, up-tempo, superior pop, with elegant song structure, ear-worm hooks and radio-busting choruses." Although Kenneth Partridge of Billboard magazine declared that the album "could be the band's Abbey Road" and awarded it four stars, he also critiqued the group as a "prefab 21st-century pop machine" who churns out "boilerplate love songs that rarely feel personal or look beyond" their "vacuum-sealed bubble-gum world".

In a review for Rolling Stone, editor Rob Sheffield thought the album is "1D's Let It Be, the kind of record the world's biggest pop group makes when it's time to say thanks for the memories". About the album's sound, he noted it is "chasing the rock vibe of Midnight Memories and Four." Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly complimented the album for being "another deft collection of shiny, hermetically sealed anthems".

Commercial performance

In the UK, Made in the A.M. debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 93,189, becoming their fourth album to top the chart and the fastest selling album of 2015 until that point, beating out Justin Bieber's album Purpose. The album was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in its first week, and certified Platinum on 1 January 2016, denoting shipments of 300,000 copies. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 459,000 album-equivalent units (402,000 pure album sales), behind Justin Bieber's Purpose, becoming the band's first album to fail to debut at number one. As of April 2016, the album has sold a total of 1,000,000 copies in the United States, counting pure sales and streams.

Track listing

Additional credits

(Credits taken from Made in the A.M.'s liner notes.)