When One Direction formed from the ashes of failed solo X-Factor auditions in 2010, I sat in scorn. It was a truly cynical act to put five cute and cuddly Bieber-likes together, dismissing vocal inabilities in favour of an ITV gasp tactic, bound to breathe fire into the fingers of teenage tweeters, and make the boys a hash tag friendly pop bomb.

And yet, to my surprise, I found 'What Makes You Beautiful' not only the best pop single of the year so far, but potentially of any X-Factor contestant ever.

It begins with the semi sampling of a Grease beat, all 50s hip bumping and finger-clicking innocence; swirling into tight verses of thoughtful flirting, timed and toned to sound like Ghandi quotes, structured so sweetly that you even enjoy the soft and sullen and sort of creepy whisper of boy-most-likely-to-do-a-Robbie, Harry Styles. And then, there’s the chorus.

Crunching technicolour guitars, sweet "hair-based" sentiment, and a tempo that limbos between frenzied and controlled, like a drunk rabbit pretending he’s sober to his mum. It’s a bona fide explosion of credible song writing, proving that there’s no need to patronise, or pander, or pretend to be stallions, when you’re actually sweethearts. Sidestepping the temptation of overproduced Guetta rubbish, and confirming that boys writing about how amazing girls are is still the best recipe for pop perfection.

Avoiding the smutty smog of modern pop, What Makes You Beautiful is more a breath of vanilla air, a kindly reminder of the thrill of teenage romance, and a long eye-lashed look into the curious brilliance of a proper pop song.