Music Review: One Direction "Kiss You"

One Direction

Kiss You

Album: Take Me Home

Year: 2013

        Harry Styles, the most well-known member of One Direction, wants to take things further with his girlfriend in the hormonal “Kiss You.”

     Feverish synths open the single, setting a rambunctious tone. Zayn Malik has the first half the verse. He’s got it all planned out. He’ll tell his parents he needs the one hundred dollars for a school field trip. One of his friends will pick them up in the morning and then drop them off at the hotel.  Or they can go the lake. It’s really up to her.  (“Oh I just wanna take you anywhere that you like/We can go out any day any night/Baby I'll take you there take you there/Baby I'll take you there, there.”)

       Styles chooses not to dance around the subject of sex. He flat out asks her what he has to do in order for her to sleep with him. He’ll shower three times a day. He’ll do her algebra homework for her. He’ll walk to his classes backwards. (“Oh tell me tell me tell me how to turn your love on/You can get get anything that you want/Baby just shout it out shout it out/Baby just shout it out.”)

       In the pre-chorus, Liam Payne adds he’s ready whenever she is while Styles wonders if any of his schemes are working. (“And if you/You want me to/Let’s make a move, yeah/So tell me girl if every time we.”)

         In the chorus, they all join. Styles (for brevity) fishes for an answer. His questions become personal and graphic, trying to figure out her comfort level with what they are doing now. He hints that it’ll be okay if they sleep together, even if it’s at her house. He won’t think she’s a slut or easy. It would make really happy if she did say yes, though. (“Touch/You get this kinda rush/Let me say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah/If you don't wanna take this slow/If you just wanna take me home/Let me say yeah yeah yeah yeah  yeah/And let me kiss you.’)

        Malik says he just looks at her and immediately starts to picture her naked.        She’s incredibly pretty. (“Oh baby, baby don't you know you got what I need/Lookin' so good from your head to your feet/C'mon come over here over here/C'mon come over here yeah.”)

         Niall Horan continues the rest of the second verse. Everywhere he and his friends go, he wants to take her. He’s landed the one girl his friends said wouldn’t ever give him the time of day. They’ll stare at her, wishing they were him. (“Oh I just wanna show you off to all of my friends/Makin' them drool down their chinney chin chins/Baby be mine tonight, mine tonight/Baby be mine tonight yeah.”)

        Payne and Malik take turns during the pre-chorus.

        The chorus is sung once with three extra “let me kiss you’s” at the end.
 
         They “na na na” in the bridge.

        Louis Tomlinson starts the last half of the pre-chorus.

        The chorus is sung three times to end the single.

         One Direction’s overzealous, shameless vocals are panting, hard at the mere thought of sex. It’s realistic, reading the average teenage boy’s mind and not the least bit romantic, which is atypical in the boy band genre where impure thoughts cease to exist. However, they also badger the young girl to have sex, giving her no choice but to cave into the pressure. It gives the single a severe edge, numbing any innocence that’s left.

       The blatant “Kiss You” is a parent’s worst nightmare.