BBC turns One Direction's way as they woo a more mature audience

Story of my Life single is playlisted by both Radio 1 and Radio 2 – but album attracts snide reviews from some quarters

One Direction: the BBC gets the point of their grown-up sound. Photograph: Startraks Photo/Rex Features

Robbie Williams is "gutted" that Radio 1 won't playlist his songs – andrecently drew criticism after featuring on Radio 4. But it seems the BBCcan't get enough of One Direction, whose new single Story of my Life has had the rare honour of being A-listed by both Radio 1 and Radio 2. The Independent reports on the "tug of war" between the stations over the group, with Radio 2 apparently straying from its mission of targeting an older audience. A BBC spokesman told the paper: "Both Radio 1 andRadio 2 make decisions to playlist songs with listeners in mind. So while both felt this song would appeal to their audiences, the listening experience would be vastly different, as the stations' tone and mix of music means they have unique and utterly distinctive sounds." One Direction's record label hailed Radio 2 for "jumping on board" the group's more "mature" sound on their new album Midnight Memories. But what do critics make of the band's change of direction? The Observer's Kitty Empire gave the album three stars, saying it "does the job" and "looks certain to cement them as a global phenomenon", while the Daily Beast said "It's not a great album. Then again – in the finest pop tradition – it's not really supposed to be. Instead, Midnight Memories is really a bunch of aspiring singles jumbled together, jostling for attention." But the prize for the most splendidly acerbic review goes to the Michigan Daily, which said: "It's reminiscent of when US record executives changed The Beatles' Rubber Soul to better position it among the burgeoning folk scene of the mid-60s. The only difference is that Rubber Soul was, you know, a little bit better ... Considering the resources at the group's disposal, it's really surprising how terribly executed Midnight Memories is. Surely the band could've hired better songwriters than the ones featured on this record, and even the producers don't seem to know what they're doing. The record's artificial and overdone style is the musical equivalent of putting a poem through five different languages in Google Translate and then seeing what it looks like again in its original tongue." Definitely not A-list material for that paper, then.