One Direction hint first album as a four piece will sound like Oasis

Noel Gallagher is unlikely to be overjoyed at this news but maybe we're wrong

One Direction without Zayn Malik, who quit the band in March (Getty Images)

One Direction have confirmed that they are still going strong after Zayn Malik abandoned them by dropping some hints about their next album.

The pop group's first release as a four-piece isn't going to sound like Take That, Boyzone, N'Sync or other such famous boybands...but "kind of like a bit Oasis-y". Yes, we're afraid you read that correctly.

Liam Payne has revealed that work on 1D's fifth album is "coming together really well" and will boast some "great, great songs".

"It's kind of like a bit Oasis-y almost, which is ace. I love that," he told Capital. "The songs have come out a bit more chilled because I think we want this to be quite a long-lasting album that you can listen to anytime."

Ed Sheeran is also proving a big inspiration in the studio. "Anytime, you can throw on an Ed song and it can always make sense," Payne gushed about his chart-topping contemporary. "We're trying to do that."

What Oasis songwriter and guitarist Noel Gallagher will make of this latest news remains to be seen, but he has described the boys as "lovely lads" recently, so perhaps he'll be alright with it.

But then again, he also told Rolling Stone that he has "difficulties with people who don't write their own songs" and pretty much hates the state of modern music...