NEW YORK (AP) — He met her at a “Dinner Party.” It’s not enough to call it a concept album, but former One Direction boy bander and Irish singer Niall Horan’s fourth studio album, “Dinner Party,” grounds itself in love songs about his longtime partner, who he met at the get-together. If the title track is the crux of the release, the message is clear: This is a breezy 12-track collection that makes settling into a long-term relationship sound effortless. It’s why the chorus repeats and repeats, and verses are cut short to get to the good stuff. “Crashing lights when you first saw me,” he sings. “Yeah, I met you at a dinner party.” The rest is history.
And it continues throughout the album’s polish, from the dreamy guitar pop of “Monochromatic” and slow-burn “She Gets It from Her Mother” to the yacht rock silliness of “Boys Are Fun” and romantic bass of “Flowers.” (The story behind the later? The line “No, you don’t know your powers / Swear your eyes could grow flowers” was lifted from a fan who tweeted a similar line at Horan. Talk about fan service.) The hooks are prevalent, if not earwormy.
But only gloss would slip in and out of a listener’s memory. To counteract any weightlessness, Horan suffuses doubt. Like on the acoustic ballad “Better Man,” where stacked self-harmonies offer tense vulnerability: “I would understand,” he sings, “If there was a better man.”
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Or he opts for a newfound edge — the profanity of “Pretty,” with its gorgeous guitar riff — or sonically, like on opener “Tastes So Good,” which draws subtle influence from pop-punk. There, it’s palm-muted power chords and drums loud in the mix, channeling Blink-182 member Travis Barker’s idiosyncratic style.
Though romance seems to be his primary focus, the emotional crux of “Dinner Party” for Horan’s dedicated fanbase will be its closer. Co-written with longtime One Direction songwriters John Ryan and Julian Bunetta, “End of an Era” was stopped and started many times throughout the years and serves as a thoughtful punctuation mark. It was completed following the death of Horan’s boy bandmate Liam Payne, who died in 2024 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. He was 31.
Sonically, the song recalls 1D’s joviality, aided by Horan’s aged wisdom. “Time passes so fast that I couldn’t tell you goodbye,” he sings. “Careless times, yeah, we sure had some / Naive eyes, yeah, we sure looked young / Tears fall down like the future comes / Slowly, and then all at once.”
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It is imbued with the same animating affection that carries throughout “Dinner Party,” but one where adoration is displayed another way: In grief, where unexpressed love continues to preserve. It shows promise that Horan’s songwriting may continue to evolve as he grows.
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“Dinner Party” by Niall Horan
Three stars out of five.
On repeat: “Pretty,” “Dinner Party”
Skip it: “She Gets It from Her Mother”
For fans of: Effortless pop-rock, turning 30, cream in your coffee
