One of Louis Tomlinson's main problems perhaps has a first and last name: Harry Styles.
The friend and adventure companion in One Direction remains an inevitable, cumbersome term of comparison. Even if Louis' trajectory is more traditional and overtly pop, the comparison is permanent, and continues to weigh like a long shadow.
In “How Did I Get Here?” Tomlinson tests himself as an author, composer and performer, moving without shyness between Oasis-style guitars and sugary Ed Sheeran-style ballads, in a clear attempt to be everything to everyone. An inclusive, even accommodating album, which however pays the price for this indiscriminate openness.
Despite having nothing left to prove, Louis continues to write and perform with discipline and dedication, digging deeper into his own identity than in the past. But the question remains: is it really enough? Underneath smooth arrangements and an all too reassuring summer feeling (Lemonade, Sunflowers), it's difficult to glimpse who Tomlinson really is as an individual, even before as a pop star.
And it's a shame, because when he stops taking refuge in the surface, an author capable of authentic introspection emerges. The deaths that marked his life, his musical companion Payne, the death of his mother in 2016 and that of his sister a few years later – find space almost exclusively in Dark to Light: a bare, emotionally precise ballad that stands out like a sliver of truth in an album dominated by filler songs.
The feeling, in the end, is that of an opportunity only missed: How Did I Get Here? it allows us to glimpse a possible elsewhere, more restless and necessary, but prefers to deviate towards a reassuring luminosity, effective immediately and yet destined to be consumed quickly.
SCORE: 6.50
TO LISTEN NOW
LEMONADE – LAZY – DARK TO LIGHT
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
A pleasant but not unforgettable album!
