Louis Tomlinson is thirty, just like me. Recently he released an album titled “Faith in the Future”. I wasn’t looking forward to it, I wasn’t even looking it up. YouTube Music’s algorithm suggested it as something I might like, probably based on the embarrassing number of hours of Harry Styles I’ve listened to this year.

     I’ve never been a One Direction fan as I was already fairly outside of the target audience but they were so huge that I am familiar even with a certain obvious conspiracy (iykyk), heard couple of their songs in the radio & I am aware that all of the guys are still making music. As mentioned, Harry’s aesthetic is much more down my alley & some three and a half songs I’ve heard from Louis was fine for me, at best but it turns out, once again, that my natural curiosity led me to discover something surprisingly good for me, some of the most comforting pieces of music I’ve listened to.

     It is nothing groundbreaking in terms of composition, neither it is lyrically revolutionary, however not every conversation with a friend must be that. And this is exactly how listening to this album felt to me – catching up with a friend, who has been through stuff, and I was too, so we are going to simply sit down & talk about it over a pint. It was like a hug on a record. And I feel seen as a millennial.

     This album was made with care, I could feel it with every song, nothing seems accidental, nothing seems like a filler or something Louis didn’t like. Some of the tracks are simply pure fun, some are very sentimental, some are in between, because nostalgia can be fun & warm too. There are couple of motifs weaved through: love, heartbreak, hope, self-image & awareness. Some may say: “so, clichés”, I say – classics. Thirty year old in me, who is still stunned by the fact that she is an adult & can live without supervision 24/7, even though I contain not 60 percent of water but confusion spiced up by anxiety fueled by major historical events, embraced it.

     Being simple & relatable is better than being pretentious just for the sake of it. Statistically speaking, me & Louis and other thirty year olds have a bigger part of our lives still in front of us. Do we have faith in the future? Not only in ours but also the future of this whole planet?

     When it comes to musical compositions I have two words for you: guitar & drums. In various combinations. This is it, that’s what I feel competent saying. If you grew up with pop & rock of the 90s, you will hear it here. It got stirred up a bit because 90s were three decades ago, even if we fervently refuse to believe it. However, when it comes to lyrics, I am going to go for it & look closer.

     I would divide the songs on this album into four groups based on the level of nostalgia they evoked in me (lyrically or otherwise but mostly words, words are the bestest):

     I. Major Nostalgia: Lucky Again, Chicago, All This Time, Silver Tongues
     II. Middle Nostalgia: The Greatest, Bigger Than Me, Face The Music, Headline, Saturdays, Common People, Holding On To Heartache, That’s The Way Love Goes
     III. More Fun Than Nostalgia But Still: Written All Over Your Face, Out Of My System
     IV. I Feel Neither Nostalgia Nor Anything Else: She Is Beauty We Are World Class & Angels Fly.

     And here below the list of the words that pulled the strings of my heart enough to write about them:

• The Greatest: “Your face reminding me / Of a love you cannot hide / But don’t need to tell me why / Back to the very start / Findin’ pieces that can fit / We can hope for what we miss”
• Bigger Than Me: “I know I took a left / Tryna make it right / How you sleep at night when you’re just like me?”
• Lucky Again: “‘Cause I’m a hard man to lose / But I figured it out then made my way back / To a life I would choose / We were lucky once, I could be lucky again / Before the world had got so serious / I meet you at the favorite subway stop / We grab some food then meet the lads for one”
• Face The Music: “Let’s buy some time / I don’t wanna face the music / But I still wanna dance with you”
• Chicago: “I saw you had a baby / Did you use any of the names we liked? / Have you seen how my life’s been going? / ‘Cause I’ve been wondering what you’d say”
• All This Time: “And I keep on building mountains / Hoping that they’ll turn to gold / But the truth is I still doubt that / What I do can get me home”
• Out Of My System: “I am only half of what / I think I can be / I’ve lived a lot of my life already / But I gotta get through the rest”
• Headline: “You let your pride hide all your beauty and your kindness / If you got in my head / You wouldn’t be scared of what you’d find”
• Saturdays: “Somebody’s got your trainers on”
• Silver Tongues: “You smile at me and say, “It’s time to go” / But I don’t feel like goin’ home”
• Holding On To Heartache: “You said I’m holdin’ onto heartache / You said I wear it like a crown / You should be starin’ at the sky / The birds just passin’ by, love / To be honest, I’m not easy on myself”
• That’s the Way Love Goes: “Not going to ask you, but we’ll make sure you’re okay”
• Common People gets an honorable mention due to absolutely heartwarming & melting smile you can hear in Louis’ voice for the whole song.

     So, to conclude, if the words “used to” are both painful & comforting to you, if you are trying to process what in actual hell is going on around us, if you crave some wholesome simplicity, if you need somebody next to you to just say “I know, mate, it sucks”, give this album a go. I did & I don’t regret it at all. But, fair warning, some of those songs are catchy & will get stuck in your head.