How does One Direction's new song actually rate?

Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson of One Direction.

So one Direction have made their first musical statement post-Zayn Malik's departure. It appeared online late last week and, according to Spotify, set a record for the most streams in a single day with more than 4.75 million (also quickly becoming No. 1 on Apple Music). So it seems the fanbase have given it their stamp of approval, and gone back for more.

But is it any good? It's a strange question to pose to yourself as a music journalist - we all know what we expect of One Direction: bombastic beats, cheekily stolen guitar riffs, knowing references to bands of a bygone era, and lyrics designed to make fans think the song might just be about them.

"All my life, you stood by me, when no one else was ever behind me. All these lights, they can't blind me, with your love, nobody can drag me down."

So yep, Drag Me Down ticks all the boxes. If you're a 1D fan, you'll have no qualms about making it your ringtone, if you're not, I can reassure you, there's no real need to revisit them.

But how does it rate, as far as One Direction songs go?

Actually it feels a little flat, a little lacking in conviction and energy. Where they've proved they can be occasionally endearing with tracks like Little Things, and have a knack for capturing youthful exuberance with Best Song Ever or last year's Steal My Girl, this seems to be their "let's be grown ups" or "let's find some male fans" moment ... and it doesn't work that well.

It's not a disaster. Musically it sounds like they're heading in a bit of a Six60 direction, melding rock and EDM with a touch of roots-like skank in the verses. But it's all seriousness and angst instead of their hallmark precociousness. And their vocals have been so heavily layered with electronic processing they're fairly indistinguishable. But they could probably just be computers and no one would really notice, as long as their faces are in the video.

Though the record label have promoted Drag Me Down as a glimpse of their new mature direction for album number five, it'll be interesting to see the boys try to pull it off without losing the apparent charm which made them so popular with the young ladies in the first place.

Watch One Direction perform Drag Me Down live:

- TimeOut