One Direction's 'Home' is built with maturity

by Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY

Posted November 12, 2012

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One Direction's Niall Horan, left, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik have a new album to follow up their 'Up All Night' debut. (Credit: John Wright)

Anyone who had hoped the nation's female youth might soon move its affections from One Direction better get used to having the British boy band around a little while longer.

Take Me Home (* * * out of four) moves the group into more mature, even sexually suggestive territory without sacrificing the playful cheeriness that made last year's Up All Night so charming.

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It's a bit predictable in spots, with a few tracks sounding like little more than debut-album songs given glossy pop makeovers, but it also contains pleasant surprises.

Chief among those are the stripped-down material such as Little Things, a ballad that slightly varies the theme of the group's signature hit, What Makes You Beautiful.

Download: Little Things; C'mon, C'mon; I Would