Father of four Liam Gallagher doesn’t sound like he has much patience for the younger generation on his new album: “Whatever happened to the world we knew? Now it’s full of drips… Oh I need a break, where there’s no snowflakes,” he whines on World’s in Need. But if they’re supposed to be so easily upset by everything, how come the kids’ music is so happy? The debut album from Bedfordshire teenager Alfie Templeman may be overshadowed by the return of Harry Styles a week earlier, as well as Rex Orange County in March, but all three young men are making consistently upbeat pop music that makes a sunny day feel significantly sunnier.
Styles’s As It Was is now on its seventh week in the number one spot and a strong contender for pop song of the year. Rex Orange County’s logo is a cartoon thumbs-up with legs and a smiling face. Templeman just launched this album by putting on a festival inside the blocky computer world Minecraft, where you could watch his avatar play while riding on a moon buggy or a space rollercoaster.
