After a long wait, Louis Tomlinson finally has released Walls. After teasing a new sonic direct, the former One Direction member’s dropped his solo debut on Jan. 31. After releasing “Kill My Mind,” “Two Of Us,” “We Made It,” “Don’t Let IT Break Your Heart” and the title track, fans were curious – would he sing more about Eleanor Calder? Would he reference his former band? Well, Louis had another surprise up his sleeve: including “Always You” on the track list, a song that he first teased in 2017. Although he confirmed the track would make the cut in 2019, fans nevertheless freaked out.
“WAS IT WORTH IT TO WAIT ALMOST 3 YEARS FOR ALWAYS YOU? YESSSSSSS 100% PORCENT, F***ING MASTERPIECE, WELL DONE, KING
@Louis_Tomlinson #Walls,” one such fan tweeted, while another wrote, “congrats @Louis_Tomlinson on your debut album, #Walls! it’s amazing & i’m already in love with it 🥰🖤. been waiting forever to listen to Always You ☺️.”
Other fans dived deeper into the lyrics, wondering if Louis dedicated yet another romantic ode to Eleanor after writing about his longtime girlfriend in another track on the album, “We Made It.” Louis opens the song by singing, “I went to Amsterdam without you / And all I could do was think about you / And oh, I should’ve known / I went to Tokyo to let it go / Drink after drink, but I still felt alone / I should’ve known.” That led one investigative Twitter user to write, “Wait so, I’m always you, it says he went from LAX to Heathrow and went home to see no one there n that. Isn’t that exactly what he said about coming home from tour or something and Eleanor wasn’t there??? Is it her, am I late to that😳 #Walls.”
@Louis_Tomlinson I just finished listening to this masterpiece!!, this is so beautiful I can’t believe #AlwaysYou wasn’t supposed to be in the album glad we fought for it.
— RV ; (@lDiva_) January 31, 2020
Early reviews for Walls have been mixed. The album gained a mostly-positive review from the notoriously finicky NME, who praised it for not what Louis did, but how Walls sets in play for what’s to come. “He’s perhaps taking the time to find himself properly before launching into a boisterous future. He may be looking back on what he loved – both the history he helped make and the one that shaped him – before rebuilding something new. There are the foundations here for a rewarding future.”
For Louis, Walls is a triumph because of all the hard work he’s put into it. “I feel like I’ve been swimming against the tide a little bit,” he told Rolling Stone “When I took the leap of faith to go, “All right, I’m going to do something on my own,” it took me a second to work out exactly what that was going to be. A lot of people, when they’re first starting out, they develop in the background, trying different things. But obviously, I had to do that a little bit more publicly. That’s been definitely been challenging at times. So I’m relieved to have an album that I’m really proud of.”
Louis is also proud of the work he’s done with One Direction. “First, I absolutely fucking love the band. I’m super proud about where I’ve come from,” he told Rolling Stone. “At the end of the day, I’m from Doncaster, and the band gave me such a nice opportunity. But also, there’s a big history of that, people coming out of bands and chatting shit. I just think they just look so obvious. It’s such a desperate attempt to try and get cool points. So I don’t think it’s authentic. I fucking love the boys, and I love everything we’ve done together. And I still miss my time with them. I think any of the boys would be lying if they said otherwise. It was a special time in our lives, definitely.”