Made in the A.M. is the fifth and final studio album by English-Irish boy band One Direction, released on 13 November 2015 by Columbia Records and Syco Music.
"[1] On 22 September 2015, the title of the forthcoming album, Made in the A.M., was announced and a promotional single, "Infinity", released on the iTunes Store and Apple Music.
[36] 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".
[27] Writing for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield stated that 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."
[37] Patrick Ryan of USA Today commented that the group's "writing is sharper and their sound richer than before" and that "if Made in the A.M. ends up being One Direction's final album, it's not a bad swansong to go out on".
[38] Patrick Ryan, writing for Idolator, wrote that "it's an album that sounds like another day at the office for the group's remaining members, replete with ballads, soaring pop styles, an a cappella vocal group experiment, the aforementioned intense, late night “dark track” and that "the lads are as sincere and focused as ever, without any overt acknowledgement that this is the end of an era" while comparing songs on the album to the likes of Coldplay and Paul McCartney and Wings.
[40] Writing for SPIN, Alfred Soto wrote that the album includes more "sensitivity" than previous efforts while adding that the record offers "hits plus filler".
He added that the "other bandmembers pick up the slack [of Malik's absence] impressively" and that "their songwriting shows growth, their vocals remain flawless, the production team continues to throw the occasional curveball to go along with the softballs, and there are plenty of songs that sound like the best pop music has to offer in 2015".
[43] Lewis Corner, writing for Digital Spy wrote that the album "proves they have continued to push their style in unexpected ways", that it "rounds off a phenomenal chapter in their career, bringing together the pop, rock and folky influences that helped them go from teenage upstarts to a billion dollar industry", and that "for a group limited by the perception that they are just "boyband pop", their music has become as accomplished as their shining achievements".
[44] Jon Caramanica of the New York Times had a more negative review, commenting that "the music is too banal to support exceptional singing" and that the album was "rootless and vague".
[45] Leah Greenblatt, writing with Entertainment Weekly commented that "the lyrics, with a few subtly naughty exceptions, are still largely crafted for listeners whose idea of romance is a Disney prince—dashing, devoted, and safely two-dimensional" and that "One Direction don't seem ready yet to explore their own more adult voices.