Louis Tomlinson released Faith in the Future on Nov. 11, his first album in two years. For the first week, it debuted No. 2 on the Billboard’s Top Album Sales, selling an astounding 37,500 copies in the U.S.. The album has 16 amazing songs, and it is a total of 52 minutes long.

Faith in the Future adequately expresses that things truly do get better in life despite our trials. While all the songs supplied impactful insight about Tomlinson’s experience with life getting better after tough times, the three songs that appealed to me most were “Chicago”, “Headline”, and “Angels Fly”.

The lyrics of “Chicago” express the importance of remaining patient because difficult situations get better. He sings, “they say bitter ends turn sweet in time”, reiterating that just because life may be bad now doesn’t mean it’ll be bad forever.

He continues singing about life and time in “Headline”, saying, “maybe if you’d taken more time, I’d still be the one you talk to every night”. It represents the lack of communication and time put in by someone he deeply cares about, so they lost touch and ended up drifting apart. It comes to the conclusion that if the person put in more effort, they’d still be together.

He expresses in “Angels Fly”, “put the pain behind you now, you don’t need it anymore”, reminding himself and his audience that you can move on from pain and put it to rest. When you hold onto pain you have experienced in the past, it can ruin not only your future but also your present life. Overall, he’s saying that in order for things to get better, you need to let go of the past.

I have a strong connection to this album, especially the aforementioned songs. The lack of communication being described in “Headline” is immensely relatable. I have been in plenty of relationships and friendships where the person wasn’t as invested in the relationship and seemed to not care at all.

As iterated in “Angels Fly”, I am also one to hold onto events that have happened in the past. I will admit — I hold onto feelings and people who make me feel horrible. Hearing someone that I look up to attest that he’s had the same feelings was nice to hear, especially when he’s saying that it’s going to be okay and, like mentioned in “Chicago”, that it’ll get better with time. 

This album made me feel like I wasn’t alone, that I wasn’t weird or wrong for feeling the ways I did. It made me come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t the problem in those unfortunate situations, and I’m not the only one that’s experienced difficult relationships and feelings like that. 

The very last lyric of “Chicago” says, “it just wasn’t meant to be”, and as someone who very much believes that things happen the way they’re supposed to happen, this is a very comforting and encouraging line that ties the album together nicely. It’s a universal line that all can relate to. 

All in all, I rate Faith in the Future a 9/10.