![]() ![]() The third-person talking-to Harry gives himself on “As It Was” invites a burst of empathy. And on an album whose themes are largely generic, a few dots of self-reflexivity sparkle. “Satellite” enters into conversation with Ariana Grande’s “NASA” and features a wonderful bit of text painting: Styles sings about “spinning out” while the back half of the song builds momentum and nearly careens out of control. Harmonies open like refracted light around the bright, decadent passages of “Daylight” (“If I was a bluebird/I would fly to you/You’d be the spoon/Dip you in honey so I could be sticking to you”). Substance sometimes lacks, but style always abounds. ![]() “I could cook an egg on you”: Harry Styles lyric or Denny’s tweet? The mood is light, too: Opener “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” kicks things off with scatting, scene-stealing horns, and a litany of food references (fried rice, ice cream, coffee on the stove) that conjure a state of goofy, sated bliss. Styles’ previous albums seemed preoccupied with a desire to demonstrate taste and legitimacy via retro-rock pastiche, but here he wears his influences more lightly. Its sounds-which move through funk, folk, and 2010s Tumblr-pop-are friendly and familiar enough to satisfy passive listening, but deftly executed, with a surplus of style and whimsy that rewards a more active ear. The album oozes the easy charisma that lifted Styles head and shoulders above his former One Direction colleagues and makes him one of pop’s more compelling live acts. On Harry’s House, pleasure is the aesthetic proposition. On TikTok, Harry’s House single “As It Was” is a go-to soundtrack for supercuts of curated domesticity. Meanwhile, he’s got Mick Fleetwood peddling his nail polish. Harry is pictured in Gucci pajamas carrying a breakfast tray the story’s very existence signals his hard turn into comfort and leisure. ![]() ![]() Styles’ appearance in the June issue of that publication-which runs articles about organic fertilizer and Meyer lemons and rarely profiles musicians at all, much less those of Styles’ stature-brushes off the music press and cleverly promotes Harry’s House, his third album. When a rock star becomes a lifestyle influencer, he announces it with a Better Homes & Gardens cover. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |