Louis Tomlinson releases first song on his own
Former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson kick-started his career post boy band with Steve Aoki collaboration ‘Just Hold On’ at the end of last year. This year he returned with Bebe Rexha duet ‘Back To You’, a track that was marketed as his first solo single, but sounded more like he was featuring on her latest single than the other way around. The track failed to match expectations chart wise and Tomlinson now launches ‘Just Like You’, his first song released properly on his own.

In a series of tweets, Tomlinson announced the new track as a gift to his fans that will not be the official next single. That last bit seems like a smart move, because this is not nearly hit worthy enough to keep up with his successful peers like Zayn, Harry Styles and Niall Horan. Louis clearly chose the wrong One Direction colleague to follow. He starts the song singing: “it’s the guy from the one band, cigarette in my left hand.” The good news is that this is not as cringey as Liam Payne’s ‘used to be in 1D, now I’m out, free’ line in ‘Strip That Down’, but that is about all the good news I have here.

WIth ‘Just Like You’ Louis seems to want to convince you he is still your normal bloke. He plays pool on the single cover and sings about how the audience only sees the glamorous part of his life while he would rather eat ‘pub lunch every sunday’ with his girl. This type of message has been done a million times before and executed better; for example in Justin Bieber’s more poignant and effective ‘I’ll Show You’. While the lyrics at least evoke some sort of reaction, the hook is surprisingly forgettable and the production is just as bland. I get that this is just a ‘gift’ for the fans, but Louis Tomlinson really needs to step up his game if he wants to succeed as a solo act.