After teasing a “sometime this year” drop, Niall Horan has formally completed work on his fourth solo full length.
Preempted by the release of his recent ‘Drive Safe’ collaboration with Myles Smith, the former One Direction member confirmed the completion of his highly anticipated follow-up to 2023’s The Show.
Taking to social media, the Irish artist posted “Album is DONE” along withg some behind-the-scenes clips and photographs from his recording days. And during his recent Zoom interview with Hits Radio Breakfast Show with Fleur East, Will Best and James Barr, he said “I’m in here finishing it right now. So I’m in the beat lab!” “I’m just finishing off some vocal bits and things like that, that I wasn’t happy with, but yeah!” “I should have music sometime this year. And I’m very excited about it!”
Peaking at #3 in 2017, Niall’s first solo album Flicker set the stage for his 2020 Heartbreak Weather and The Show in 2023.
His first new music since his third LP, Horan was already a fan of Myles before they worked together on ‘Drive Safe’ though it was still an intimidating prospect.
“It’s tough when someone asks you to do this because, it’s very close to his heart, something like very serious to him.” “And for me to then come and write the rest of it with him was obviously a tall ask.” “Then we just met up and we said we’d see what happened and we’re in the studio together and it just, it clicked.” “It meant something to me, and it meant something completely different to him and that’s the great thing about these kinds of things,” added Naill.
About the importance of following your heart, the two musicians sing “wherever it takes you”, “tears fall” along the way, that’s ok,” and “life is a road, don’t know what’s along the way / so drive safe.”
In a statement about their work together, Myles said:
“Collaborations only really matter to me when they come from something real, and working with Niall genuinely did.” “He’s got this effortless instinct for melody, but beyond that he’s a good friend who very quickly became one of my closest.” “Our friendship shaped the song, and hopefully you can feel it in every line.”
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Author: Al Dente
Photo: Ashley Newby