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Harry Styles, photo by Lillie Eiger
“Come on Harry, we want to say goodnight to you!” - As It Was, Harry Styles
Pop singer/songwriter Harry Styles’ junior album, Harry’s House, invites listeners on a journey of love, heartache, and friendship. Harry’s House is arguably one of the greatest albums to come out of 2022, oozing with synths, horns, and the sweet melancholic blend of harmonies and catchy riffs. Though Styles is widely considered as a pop artist, the album is filled not only with nodes of pop music, but additionally funk, R&B, and synth-pop. This is a flair Styles has explored throughout his solo music career which started in 2017, just short of two years after One Direction’s indefinite hiatus was announced.
The record gives fans an insight into Styles’ exceedingly private life. Along with this, Styles gained two Grammy awards for the album to add onto his first at this year’s 65th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year.
The track list, which consists of 13 songs, feels like an absolute rollercoaster as Styles goes from being in love, to having prolonged heartache towards an old lover, to singing about a friend, to being in love again.
With a strong and funky intro that immediately reels listeners in as the first track on the album, Music For A Sushi Restaurant can only be considered one gigantic lyrical masterpiece. Lyrics like “green eyes, fried rice, I could cook an egg on you” are words that can only be shoved together and sound swooning by Styles.
The lead single off of the album, As It Was, granted Styles a spot at top of the UK Singles Chart, as well as his second number one single in the US, as the song spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Scouting out different sounds throughout his career, AIW is a perfect example of the pop-rock genre that Styles has so aimlessly sought out for. With guitar riffs and drum beats that have been described as energetic and sunny, the track has captured the hearts of many, including those who have not a clue in the world who Styles is.
Being in a long distance relationship can be tricky, but Styles nails down the essential, most basic aspects of it through the song Late Night Talking: you miss them, you love them, you would do anything for them. The track was debuted during Styles’ infamous 2022 Coachella performance, giving fans a taste of the long-anticipated album. LNT is a sultry and 80’s-reminiscent track in which Styles captures it all, and effortlessly at that.
Daylight and Daydreaming, having similar sounding track names, give the exact same vibe (is this a good thing?) As Styles continues to sprinkle nods to the difficulties and intimacies of long distance with a partner, these tracks highlight the fun and exciting parts that can only be understood by those away from their loved ones. With groovy and nostalgic instrumentals, the pain of long distance relationships are nearly framed as bearable.
The list slows down for just three tracks on the album, making way for Little Freak, Matilda, and Boyfriends. The tracks explore sadness and suffering, dealing with themes of unrequited lovers and friends who have known family-driven detachment far long enough. Boyfriends, as explained by Styles during an interview with Zane Lowe, is a song about witnessing rough relationships you aren’t even a part of. Styles continued to say: “I grew up with a sister so it’s like watching her date people and watching friends date people, and you know, people don’t treat each other very nicely sometimes.” While Boyfriends and Matilda have personified guitar riffs that have the ability to be stuck in someone’s head for days, Little Freak is a ballad including strong bass mixed with acoustic guitar strings, formulating it as an almost-pop song.
The few remaining songs are tied with the rest of the lovey-dovey tracks on the album, going from Grapejuice, Cinema, Keep Driving, and Satellite, continuing the natural sounds of pop-rock, R&B, and just plain new-wave. As Styles is relentless from emphasizing his love to the person he is directing the songs to, his drive is prominent in these four songs, and the loud vulnerability heard throughout is deafening.
And finally, the last and most beloved baby (as Styles would call it) of the list, Love of My Life. Taking a brief glance at the song title, one could assume that it would be about a past fling or current lover. Fear not, it has been confirmed to be about Styles’ hometown, Holmes Chapel, England. With lyrics like “It’s not what I wanted to leave you behind, don’t know where you’ll land when you fly, but baby you were the love of my life,” it’s easy to assume that the pop singer is speaking directly to a person, but alas, it is strictly just coordinates.
While Harry’s House is just the start to the singer’s persistent career, it seems as if there will be no stopping for Styles as he disembarks on his Asia tour in March of 2023, following with his Europe tour in May. Nonetheless, the cold-hard amenableness and truth of this third album will continue to have listeners dancing on their feet and crying in their beds for years to come; there are hopes that a fourth album will arrive long before then.