Rejoice Directioners! One Direction’s Niall Horan has just released his first single, “This Town”, as a solo artist.
In conjunction to his new song, the former 1D singer also treated fans to a black-and-white video of a stripped-down performance in a “1 Mic 1 Take” promo that premiered on his VEVO account.
Produced by Greg Kurstin (who has previously worked with Adele and Sia), “This Town” was co-written by long-time One Direction collaborators Jamie Scott, Mike Needle, and Daniel Bryer. The track’s acoustic gentleness bares similarities to the boy band’s ballads such as the Ed Sheeran-penned “Little Things”.
Take a close listen to the lyrics and you’ll notice that “This Town” is a sad song where the Irish singer-songwriter croons about having a difficult time after seeing his former flame moving on with a new guy. “I saw that you moved on with someone new/ In the pub that we met he’s got his arms around you/ It’s so hard,” he sings.
“To me the way I look at it, if you’re from a small town you’ll get this, every time you go back to your hometown you’ll see this girl in the bar, or wherever, and then everything comes back to you. And then the other part of it is the town itself no matter whatever you do whenever you live, when you go home, everything comes back to the town. That’s the way I kind of wrote it, as a double meaning,” explained Horan.
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Although the 23-year-old singer isn’t done recording for his solo album yet, he stated that the overall sound of the record will be similar to “This Town”, adding that it will be “more upbeat but that kind of vibe — the acoustic guitar, that kind of feel to it, nice strings.”
Listen:
At the moment, Horan’s solo LP is scheduled to be release sometime next year.
Sources: Billboard, Entertainment Weekly.
