Dinner Party

About

<b>“I’m just loving this evolution.” Niall Horan throws a sunny pop-rock <i>Dinner Party</i>.</b> Touring 2023’s <i>The Show</i> in 2024 undoubtedly inspired Niall Horan for his next project. “You have to paint a few pictures before you get the nice one,” he tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “But I think the tour did a lot for me, and the success of the last album just gave me a confidence to just go in and stand behind a mic, set up a band, jam, see what came from it, and release it.” Enter his fourth solo album <i>Dinner Party</i>, which lets Horan float through dreamy and soaring pop rock with a few tender ballads at the table. The upbeat and earnest <b>“Tastes So Good”</b> opens the 12-track paean to love and relationships (“It just sounds like three dudes in a room jamming, and that’s exactly what it i,” Horan says). <b>“She Gets It from Her Mother”</b>—one of three songs co-written by Morgan Wallen collaborator Rocky Block—bears a twangy ’70s aesthetic. Shiny and catchy, <b>“Pretty”</b> unearths a more mature but still chant-worthy choru, reminiscent of Horan’s youthful career. The album does end with an emotional wallop. Horan honors his friend and One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, who tragically lost his life in 2024, with <b>“End of an Era.”</b> “We had it, pure magic/Remembering what it was like/Time passes so fast that/I couldn’t tell you goodbye,” he reflects on the atmospheric tribute. .

via Apple Music

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