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Written by Wayne Hector, John Ryan, Julian Bunetta, Ed Drewett, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne

Produced by Julian Bunetta, Par Westerlund, and John Ryan

Released September 2014 by Columbia

Pros

• Nostalgic rock power ballad sound
• Easy to sing along 

Cons

• Vocals that lack in distinctiveness
• Lyrics with no emotional punch

It must be comforting to feel like you have your core audience solidly enough behind you that you can throw your primary efforts into courting others.

One Direction remain the biggest pop band in existence for millions of young teen girls around the world. However, the group's most recent releases seem clearly aimed to attract attention from their parents.

The big opening piano figure here seems to be a very close relative to the Journey classic "Faithfully." Many parents are likely to pick up on that very quickly. The overall sound of "Steal My Girl" is clearly classic rock power ballad. It even includes a big "Na na na" singalong chorus.  Adult pop radio programmers should snatch this record up quickly.

All of that sounds good so far?  The biggest problem on "Steal My Girl" is the facelessness of the vocals.  That is a big problem here. A big part of the charm of One Direction has often been the deft switching from group member to group member on the vocals making listeners eagerly wait for their favorites. The five members have distinctive voices, and fans will always remember they first auditioned as soloists on the UK's X Factor.

However, the production on "Steal My Girl" buries the vocal distinctiveness in studio effects and leaves us with a record that could have been recorded by any number of young, eager groups. 

Then there are the lyrics themselves.  If you are going to write a big power ballad, one of the most important elements are words that generate emotion in the listener.  Sometimes even those that lean to the sappy side can be the most effective. "Steal My Girl" has big words of praise for a girlfriend, but again it all feels a little limp and uninspired. There is no drama to the big production here.

Will any of this matter to core fans?  It is unlikely that it will.  However, One Direction made a big impact at adult pop and adult contemporary radio last fall with their touching single "Story Of My Life." It went all the way to #1 at the former and #2 at the latter. Those placings both outstripped its #4 peak on mainstream pop radio. Consequently, "Story Of My Life" sold more than two million copies and those weren't just core fans buying it. Unfortunately "Steal My Girl" is not going to connect viscerally with this new audience.

One Direction have already proved a staying power that goes beyond most boy bands. They have topped the album chart with three consecutive platinum certified albums, and there is no reason to expect their upcoming album Four to fail to reach that mark as well. However, "Steal My Girl" must be seen as a missed opportunity.  A year ago One Direction wowed most of us with the big, confident, uptempo "Best Song Ever" written by the same team as "Steal My Girl" except that One Direction group members Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne contributed to the writing of the new record. Let's hope there is better to come on the rest of the album.