No pressure but I am waiting for you to do track by track 😅
heartbreak weather - an absolute TUNE. super catchy, super funky, super 80s, and he sounds SO GOOD. great ‘listen in the car with the windows down’ song. would have been completely at home in the 1975, carly rae jepsen, walk the moon, etc 80s throwback wave a few years back. it’s a GREAT opener, setting up the main sonic themes of the album- the layering, the funky guitars, the added vocal adlibs and harmonies, and the general LUSHNESS of the production in comparison to flicker.
black and white - it’s SO CUTE. big Castle On The Hill vibes, in that it’s a little more acoustic based and has a very strong driving instrumental. the picture the lyric paints is gorgeous, but super, super interesting in the context of the rest of the story? if the album were a film, it seems like a good majority of the song would be a dream sequence, between the chorus imagining their wedding and second verse’s ‘i always knew’ at 65.
dear patience - probably lower in the rankings on the album for me, but still REALLY REALLY good. i love the different synths and how they elevate the song beyond just acoustic ballad that could have been on flicker to a ~bigger song that matches the vibe of the rest of the album. it kind of reminds me of 1D’s infinity a little bit with the lowkey synth drop into the chorus? and the ending where it pulls back to the violin is a nice parallel / echo to the way still ends with an instrumental part as well, and i ALWAYS love a good parallel
bend the rules - my first thought was literally “i understand the streets of philadelphia comparison now.” the production and the vocal delivery feel SO springsteen, but it works well when paired with the lyrics. the deeper tone, the slightly sluggish delivery, you just FEEL the exhaustion and hurt and confusion that the anxiety from his partner’s potentially shady behavior is causing him. i feel like i tend to rank this song lower, but then i listen to it and realize that i just forgot how GOOD it really is and that it should be higher so....it’s still growing on me and will probably be higher the more i listen.
small talk - THAT 👏 FUCKING 👏 BITCH 👏 i’m just???? how the FUCK is this a real song???? HOW?????? as soon as the beat hits at the first chorus, it’s fucking ONNNN. his voice sounds fucking PHENOMENAL throughout, moving from gritty to smooth, higher to lower with such ease. and the fucking ADLIBS IN THE LAST CHORUS??? the big belted “YEAHHHHH” leading out of the bridge???? the strength and conviction to the “you know i want it too”???? the deep tone on “straight up to your room” that reverberated in my pussy???? again i ask, how the FUCK is this song real??????
arms of a stranger - full on 80s powerballad. the lyrics are absolutely brutal, and it’s wild to imagine the same person that wrote flicker writing something like this rip. the guitar sounds on this song (and the album in general) are reallyyyyy nice. and i love a bit of clever songwriting, so the last “you left me with nothing” and immediate fadeout is REAL GOOD.
everywhere - the juxtaposition between the lyric and production is probably some of the best on the album. it’s got a similar quick, driving tempo to B&W, but it somehow feels even MORE frantic, which matches the desperate attempt to escape them and their memory. again, if the album was a film, i imagine this song being some sort of played-for-laughs montage where he’s seeing the other person everywhere he looks, their face is on every even-slightly-similar-looking-stranger’s face, and he feels like he’s going crazy because he literally cannot escape them no matter how hard he tries.
cross your mind - ANOTHER FAVE!! the distorted vocals in the intro and throughout the song, the bassline, the melody. it’s SO catchy and fun and makes me want to scream the words along, despite some painful (or potentially extremely sarcastic?) lyrics. it’s definitely got some fleetwood vibes, and by extension kind of grown-up-(production-wise)-SWA vibes?? or circles / circles cover vibes??? “at least you came tonight” has me SCREAMING every single time i hear it, i love that line. i just love, love, love this song
new angel - SHE SLAPS!!! it gives me Adore You vibes tbh?? i think in the bass maybe?? nothing wrong with that tho because that song ALSO slaps. he fucking KILLED it on vocals, especially the “cause you move when you’re moving me,” and all the layers and adlibs emphasize again just how fucking GOOD the production is on the album as a whole
san francisco - first half of the end. there’s a lowkey current country ballad vibe to it, but i’m not mad at that?? i think with the themes it’s covering, that vibe works really well for it. i like the idea of “take me back” having a bit of a double meaning- a) wanting to go back to the beginning of the relationship, as reflected in “i wanna kiss you like the first time / hold you like it’s not goodbye’, and b) a desperate plea for another chance at the relationship, as reflected in “i might show up on your doorstep soakin wet / say i’m done running from the one that i want so bad.” also it’s so interesting that he’s fully acknowledging that what they had couldn’t last and that there’s too much damage between them to undo, yet he’s willing to surrender and stop fighting against it if he were to get another shot.
still - second half of the end. it feels like this song isn’t complete without SF before it and vice versa. they compliment each other and fit together so well in the way they begin the path to healing and moving on, and it’s so different to anything on flicker? with flicker, it really felt like he was just saying the things that he should have but didn’t at the time and it was all bit more selfish, you know? there was a lot of wondering why his love wasn’t enough to make it work - cause clearly he loved that person A LOT, but for whatever reason it still fell apart - but with this album and these two songs, it feels like there’s a huge amount of maturity and growth shown in that it feels like he’s coming to terms with the fact that love alone isn’t always going to be enough to make a relationship work. he’s not always going to be right or make every decision perfectly, he’s going to fail and let down his partner sometimes, but he needs to make the extra effort in the times when his love alone doesn’t seem to be enough. and that realization that he needs to change going forward - whether that’s with and for the other person or if it’s on his own just for himself - is so important that’s the only way he’ll come to a place where he’ll be able to be a partner and have a love like he dreams. and the song itself is so perfect as a closer in how soft and vulnerable it feels, and i literally haven’t listened to it once without getting chills during the bridge as it builds with the “we’ll be alright / it’ll be alright”
dress - as i said before- 100%, no question, an absolutely incredible epilogue for the album. he’s continuing down the journey of healing that started in SF/Still and knows it’s time to move on, even tho a piece of him still isn’t quite ready to do that and might NEVER be ready. it’s just so fucking beautiful in it’s expression of a heart that knows it’s time to let go, you know? he still loves them, he still wants them, he still wants to apologize and make it right or make it better or do SOMETHING, but he’s done all that he can do and bridges are burnt, so he has to turn the page.
nothing - SO GOOD!!!! SO, SO GOOD!!! there’s an undeniable swagger and mysteriousness to it that’s unlike anything i’ve heard from niall before, but still feels very ~niall. it’s interesting because the lyrics are generally a lot more metaphorical and fantastical than he tends to go for (they feel quite classic rock in that sense tbh), but they’re simple enough that they allow the melody and production and FEELING of the song take center stage, which feels right for something so heavy hitting music-wise
