Take Me Home | ||||
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Studio album by One Direction | ||||
Released | 9 November 2012 | |||
Recorded | May–August 2012 | |||
Studio | Kinglet Studios, , Chalice Studios, Los Angeles, MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach and Sticky Studios, Surrey | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 42:19 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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One Direction chronology | ||||
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Singles from Take Me Home | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 68/100 |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
BBC Music | favourable |
Daily Express | |
Entertainment Weekly | C |
The Guardian | |
The Independent | |
The New York Times | mixed |
PopMatters | 6/10 |
Rolling Stone | |
Sputnikmusic | |
The Washington Post | favourable |
Take Me Home is the second studio album by British-Irish group One Direction, released on 9 November 2012 by Sony Music Entertainment. As a follow-up to One Direction's internationally successful debut album, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home was written in groups and has an average of just under five songwriters per track. Largely recorded and composed in Sweden during 2012, Savan Kotecha, Rami Yacoub and Carl Falk, who composed One Direction's hits, "What Makes You Beautiful" and "One Thing", spent six months in developing songs for the album, and were able to shape melodies around the members' tones.
The album's songs are characterised by metronomic pop, vocal harmonies, hand claps, prominent electric guitar riffs, bright synthesizers, a homogeneous sound and message, and rotations of lead vocals. The members' voices are presented individually on the record, and its lyricism speaks of falling in love, unrequited love, the insistence that flaws are what make a person unique, commitment, jealousy, and longing for past significant others. Take Me Home garnered mostly positive reviews from music critics. There was praise for its quality of production, while criticism hinged on its generic, rushed nature.
Globally, the album topped the charts in more than 35 countries, and was the fourth best-selling album of 2012, selling 12.4 million units. The album's number-one debut on the US Billboard 200 chart made One Direction the first group to bow atop the Billboard 200 with their first two albums since American girl group Danity Kane entered with Welcome to the Dollhouse in 2008 and their self-titled debut in 2006. One Direction also became the second act in 2012 to achieve two number-one albums within a 12-month period, and the first boy band in US chart history to land two number-one albums in a calendar year. Their debut album and Take Me Home were the third and fifth best-selling albums of 2012 in the United States, respectively, making the band the first act to place two albums in the year-end top five in the Nielsen SoundScan era.