Midnight Memories is the third studio album by English-Irish boy band One Direction, released on 25 November 2013 by Columbia Records, Syco Music and Sony Music. It was described as having a "slightly rockier tone" than their previous efforts. The album became the fastest-selling album in Amazon UK history, breaking the record set by their previous release, Take Me Home (2012). It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, making One Direction the first group in history to debut at number one in the US with their first three albums. Despite being released five weeks before the year's end, Midnight Memories nevertheless became the best-selling album of 2013 as listed by the IFPI, with sales of four million copies. The album was supported by four singles: "Best Song Ever", "Story of My Life", the album's title track "Midnight Memories", and "You & I".

Upon the album's release, Midnight Memories received mixed reviews from music critics. Many critics praised the lyrical depth and musical composition on the album, as well as the group's level of involvement in the production process. However, others argued that the material was less memorable than their previous work and felt the themes were not as mature as expected. To promote the album, One Direction embarked on their Where We Are Tour in 2014, with this being their third world tour and their first stadium concert tour.

One Direction began working on their third studio album whilst embarking on their second world tour, the Take Me Home Tour. The album was announced simultaneously with the news of the band's third world tour, the Where We Are Tour, which subsequently led fans to wrongly assume that the album would be named "Where We Are". Member Louis Tomlinson proclaimed that the album would have a "rockier" sound to it than the band's previous releases. The official title of the album was announced on 6 September 2013, starting with Zayn Malik tweeting a teaser video of Harry Styles spelling out the word "Mid" out of a pile of alphabet cards on the floor, followed by a full video posted on the band's Instagram account later on, revealing the title, Midnight Memories.

The album artwork was released early exclusively by The Sun via a tweet which was then confirmed to be the official artwork through the band's official Twitter account, though the early access was only available for those who held a membership of the newspaper's online version. On 11 October, the band presented the album's final track list through the "#MidnightMemoriesTrackQuiz" hashtag on Twitter by giving out a mixture of hints and blank spaces to be filled alongside the final result. The full track list for the deluxe edition was later shown on iTunes. The album later leaked one week prior to its release.

"Best Song Ever" was released on 22 July 2013 as the official lead single from the album. The track peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Its music video beat the Vevo record for most viewers within 24 hours on YouTube, clocking in at 12.3 million views, beating the previous record set by Miley Cyrus for "We Can't Stop", which held 10.7 million views in 24 hours.

"Story of My Life" was released on 28 October 2013 as the second single from the album. The track premiered on 25 October 2013, playing at 16:00 GST on radio stations across the world and debuted at number four on the UK Singles Chart, despite holding the number one position on the midweek chart and continuing to lead until Saturday of that week. The song eventually peaked at number 2. The music video was released on 3 November 2013.

"Midnight Memories" was announced as the third single from the album on 24 January 2014.

"You & I" was serviced to US radio on 15 April 2014 as the album's fourth and final single.