With teenage tears still fresh following news of One Direction’s “hiatus”, it’s now a rush for each member of the bestselling boyband to pedal their solo wares.
Fresh off the blocks is Liam Payne (the stubbly one), who has teased a tiny seven-second snippet of a possible upcoming single, which does its upmost to shake off the shackles of teenie pop.
The Instagram clip shows Payne, garbed in a hoodie, miming along to the R&B-influenced track. “Little song I wrote for fun yesterday,” he writes.
The clip adds fuel to rumours Payne is working with Juicy J, after the rapper recently shared a pic of the pair together.
Last month, fan favourite Harry Styles registered solo tracks with a performing rights organisation in the USA, suggesting the great bopped will be next to hit the ground running in the post-1D world.
Everyone’s playing catch up with Zayn Malik, however, who quit the then-quintet last April, and signed a record deal as a solo artist in July. The remaining quartet remain adamant they will regroup for a sixth album at a later date.
rgarratt@thenational.ae