心碎气象 (2020)

Heartbreak Weather is the second studio album by the Irish singer and songwriter Niall Horan, released through Capitol Records on 13 March 2020. It was promoted with four singles: "Nice to Meet Ya", "Put a Little Love on Me", "No Judgement" and "Black and White".

On the Billboard 200 chart, Heartbreak Weather debuted at number four, marking Horan's second top-10 album in the United States. The album also debuted at number one on the Irish and UK album charts, marking Horan's first UK number one album as a solo artist.

Background and recording

Horan announced the album on 7 February 2020 alongside the release of the third single "No Judgement", and stated in a press release that with the album, he wanted to "tell the story that was in my head, hopefully lead people down the storytelling lane of an album track listing. [...] I wanted to write songs from different sides or from someone else looking in." Horan took inspiration from the work of Bruce Springsteen as well as the Arctic Monkeys and The Weeknd. The album was recorded from October 2018 to January 2020.

Promotion

Singles

"Nice to Meet Ya" was released as the album's lead single on 4 October 2019. The song was promoted with many live performances including at the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards, Saturday Night Live and The Late Late Show with James Corden. In the official video, it mentioned Heartbreak Weather on a poster, at the timestamp 1:15. The song received a music video, directed by The Young Astronauts, which was released along with the song. The song entered many official charts worldwide including peaking at number 7 on the Irish Singles Chart, 22 on the UK Singles Chart and 63 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

"Put a Little Love on Me" serves as the second single from the album, being released on 6 December 2019. The song entered the Irish and Scottish singles chart peaking at number 32 and 38 respectively. The song received a music video which accompanied its release and was directed by Cameron Busby.

"No Judgement" was released on 7 February 2020 as the album's third single. The song was compared to Horan's 2017 single "Slow Hands". The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles chart peaking at number 97 and 32 respectively. The song's music video was released alongside the song and was directed by Drew Kirsch. The song also received a remix by Steve Void and an acoustic version. "Black and White" was released on 21 April 2020 as the album's fourth single.

Cancelled tour

Horan officially announced the Nice to Meet Ya Tour in October 2019. The tour was set to go through North America, Oceania, Europe and Latin America between April and December 2020. On 3 April 2020 Horan announced the tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated he intended to tour in 2021, "when the crisis blows over." No, rescheduled dates have been announced. Lewis Capaldi, Fletcher and Maisie Peters were set to open for Horan on the tour.

Critical reception

Heartbreak Weather received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 63, based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

AllMusic's Neil Yeung reviewed the album positively, stating that the production of the album was better than Horan's 2017 debut album, Flicker, adding that "despite the often dour and forlorn lyrical content, the songs are full-blooded and more energetic than the average breakup album". Chris DeVille, writing for Stereogum, stated that the album is "much better" than Flicker, commenting that Heartbreak Weather's writing, production, and performance all represented "an upgrade". However, he felt that "Horan is capable of evolving" but added that "such flourishes suggest this boy-band alumnus may someday grow up to be the man after all — or at the very least he won't be desperate for a reunion tour". Jason Scott, writing for American Songwriter, named the record "a stylistic leveling-up" while complimenting Horan's take on heartbreak. Michael Cragg of The Guardian highlighted that the album contains "hints of experimentation, such as the swaggering hybrid of Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian in "Nice To Meet Ya", but it's the excellent title track's flirtation with glossy, synth-tinged MOR that suggests where Horan might be headed next. Proof that it's often the quiet ones you need to keep an eye on". Mike Wass, writing for Idolator, wrote that the record "just might be pop's first, feel-good breakup album" and that "there's no sophomore slump here" while calling it "a winning collection of love songs from multiple perspectives with very few skips."