Take Me Home is the second studio album by British-Irish boy band One Direction, released on 9 November 2012 by Syco Music and Columbia Records. As a follow-up to One Direction's internationally successful debut album Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home was written in groups and has an average of just under five songwriters per track. Largely recorded and composed in Sweden during 2012, Savan Kotecha, Rami Yacoub and Carl Falk, who composed One Direction's hits, "What Makes You Beautiful" and "One Thing", spent six months in Stockholm developing songs for the album, and were able to shape melodies around the members' tones.
 
The album's songs are characterised by metronomic pop, vocal harmonies, hand claps, prominent electric guitar riffs, bright synthesisers, a homogeneous sound and message, and rotations of lead vocals. The members' voices are presented individually on the record, and its lyricism speaks of falling in love, unrequited love, commitment, jealousy and self-empowerment. Take Me Home garnered mostly positive reviews from music critics. There was praise for its quality of production, while criticism hinged on its generic, rushed nature.
 
Globally, the album topped the charts in more than 35 countries. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Take Me Home was the fourth-global-best-selling album of 2012, selling 4.4 million units. The album's number-one debut on the US Billboard 200 chart made One Direction the first group to bow atop the Billboard 200 with their first two albums since American girl group Danity Kane entered with Welcome to the Dollhouse in 2008 and their self-titled debut in 2006. One Direction also became the second act in 2012 to achieve two number-one albums within a 12-month period, and the first boy band in US chart history to land two number-one albums in a calendar year. Their debut album and Take Me Home were the third and fifth-best-selling albums of 2012 in the United States, respectively, making the band the first act to place two albums in the year-end top five in the Nielsen SoundScan era.
 
Globally, Take Me Home topped the charts in more than 35 countries, and was the fourth-best-selling album of 2012, selling 4.4 million units. In the United Kingdom, the album sold over 94,000 copies in its first two days of sale. It debuted atop the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 155,000 copies, becoming their first album to top the chart and the second fastest selling album of 2012. The album and its second single, "Little Things", both debuted simultaneously at number one in the UK on 18 November 2012, making One Direction the youngest act in British chart history to achieve the feat. The album became the fifth-best-selling album of 2012 in the UK, having sold 616,000 copies by the end of 2012. It was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 15 February 2013, denoting shipments of 600,000 copies. As of February 2016, the album has sold 1,000,924 copies in the UK.