Over two years after the release of his first solo single, Liam Payne is today celebrating the release of his debut album, LP1.
Since Zayn Malik’s departure in 2015, and the band’s “indefinite hiatus” a year later, three of the group’s members – Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Zayn – have released solo records.
So how will Liam’s measure up?
The Evening Standard’s critic has praised the album as being “packed with chart-friendly hits that see Payne reaffirm his love for hip-hop, dabble with reggaeton and even croon a Christmas track,” awarding the album four out of five stars.
But in the comings weeks, the 26-year-old will face a reckoning in the charts. Here’s how his former band mates’ efforts have fared…
Niall Horan: Flicker (October 2017)
First week copies sold and streams (combined): 23,000
Peak position in the UK charts: 3
Weeks in the UK charts: 17
Remaining true to his roots, Niall topped the Irish charts with his debut album but narrowly missed out in the UK equivalent. He also shifted 152,000 album copies in the first week in the US, which was enough to top the charts there.
Flicker received mostly three star reviews from critics with some praising his “easy listening” style while others were disappointed, even referring to the tracks as “Radio 2 filler.”
Zayn Malik: Mind Of Mine (March 2016)
First week copies sold and streams (combined): 22,000
Peak position in the UK charts: 1
Weeks in the UK charts: 10
Zayn’a hotly anticipated album – complete with an interesting grammatical style throughout, with tracks titled BeFoUr, BoRdErZ and iT’s YoU’– debuted at number one, finishing just over 4,000 combined sales ahead of his closest rival, Adele with her album 25.
He also scooped 157,000 total album sales in the US, making him the first U.K. male solo artist in history to debut atop the Billboard 200 with their first album.
Mind of Mine received positive reviews from critics, averages around four out of five stars from the UK press.
His follow-up, Icarus Falls, then was released in December 2018 but despite great promise and a 27-song tracklist – complete with guest appearances from Nicki Minaj and Timbaland – the album peaked at just 77 on the UK album charts and 61 in the US. Despite this, reviews were more positive for his sophomore record.
Harry Styles: Self-titled (May 2017)
First week copies sold and streams (combined): 57,000
Peak position in the UK charts: 1
Weeks in the UK charts: 41
The most successful solo album from the fab five so far, Harry’s debut went straight to number one in the UK and US, selling 57,000 copies in his first week, on home soil. A whopping 47,000 of them were physical sales and digital downloads (rather than streams) which is more paid-for sales in one week than Mind of Mine sold in its first year.
Harry also shifted a seriously impressive amount of copies in the US – 230,000. Of those, 193,000 of which were physical and digital purchases, according to Billboard. It received generally favourable reviews from critics, averaging around three out of four stars from the British press.
