We think, wait we know that Walls will wake the world up to just who Louis Tomlinson is, no longer will he be “that one at the back” in a boyband, but he’ll take centre stage as that guy from Donny who has found his sound and home within the indie brit-pop scene.

It’s a steadily paced album that just builds and builds into some of the most emotive songs we’ve heard in a while. It doesn’t alienate Louis’s fanbase from the sounds they are familiar with from his One Direction’s day too much. Songs like “Always You” which have slightly more of a pop tinge to them cover that base, whereas title track Walls and the album opener Kill My Mind, showcases (forgive the pun) the direction that Louis is heading with his own music, which is something that his voice was made for.

Louis has an extremely unique tone to his voice, which hearing now in its entirety on a full album perhaps wasn’t utilised to it’s fullest during his time in One Direction. While he doesn’t have the strongest voice, what he does have is the knowledge of how to use it to draw the listener in and make them feel every word he sings. Songs like Defenseless and Two of Us are full of emotion that tugs on your heartstrings at the first listen.

Eleven of the twelve tracks on Walls are written by Louis, who made a name for himself during his time in One Direction as one of the key songwriters in the band. He as a lyricist has an innate talent to turn even the most negative subject and emotion into something positive. Whereas songwriting is a skill that can be improved on the skill to write in the way he does, is something that comes from experience.

Since coming on to the music scene ten years ago Louis has seen both personal and professional highs as a member of 1D, and lows which would likely have broken a lesser person. Instead, he took his time, he channelled those feelings into tracks like Habit, Perfect Now, Defenceless and Fearless which clearly speak about very obviously personal things within his own life that he has been through, but he manages to make them so relatable, that his talk of not being ready for a relationship, making mistakes and ultimately learning from them.

As a debut Walls is a foundation. A very solid one which we look forward to seeing him continue to build on. It’s a cohesive body of work, that is perfectly rounded off with Only The Brave. It’s one of those albums that could very easily over the years become a classic and staple piece for any music collection as it’s a highly emotive and empowering listen!

Let us know your thoughts on Walls at @CelebMix!