Harry Styles made us wait three years for new music – and I’m glad he did.
The pop star’s last release was Harry’s House, his chart-topping, critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning third solo album, which dropped on May 20, 2022.
And in those long 1,344 days since, the 31-year-old As It Was hitmaker has lived just as many, if not more, lives.
He completed a global tour, ended two romances and struck up a third, dabbled in various side quests (from Pope spotting to marathon running), endured loss and unimaginable grief, brushed shoulders with more A-listers, shaved his hair then grew it back, and snogged a stranger at Glastonbury – then took all of that into the studio with him.
The result? Harry Styles’s alluring music yet.
Marking the genesis of his Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally era, his new single, Aperture, is unlike anything the former One Direction heartthrob has turned his hand to before.
To compare the synth-laced alternative dance track to his previous work, whether it be the soft rock of his self-titled debut or the psychedelic pop of Fine Line, would be unjust, because they’re worlds apart.
At five minutes and 11 seconds, the Kid Harpoon-produced tune has taken longtime fans by surprise and generated palpable intrigue among once-casual listeners, as it experiments with sounds previously unheard in Harry’s discography.
The euphoric production and life-affirming lyrical content make for an ultimately groovy yet moody experience. It’s mature but not outdated. It’s restless but not rushed. It’s catchy but not irritating. And it’s refined but still layered.
And you needn’t take my word for it, as X is flooded with comments declaring it ‘perfect’ and his ‘most artsy song yet’.
Consequently, Harry proves that taking extended breaks from the bright lights of showbiz allows artists to make their very best music.
He’s far from the first to illustrate this point, as the internet pretty much forgets Adele’s existence between her album cycles, only to fall in love with her all over again when she finally stages a comeback.
But in an age of half-finished inaugural singles from ex-pop band members itching to catch a wave before their relevance fades, TikTok creators-turned-singers slapping their names on any feeble soundbite for a viral moment, and dance artists churning out remix after remix without any differentiation or artistic growth, Harry has a refreshing approach.
Aperture is the sound of a man who has not only evolved sonically in the last three years but who has also had life experiences worth writing about.
‘It came at a time when I was starting to go out dancing a lot more. So, I was just hearing different types of music […]. The experiences with music that I was having were starting to influence the music [I was making],’ Harry explained to Radio 1’s Greg James as he promoted the new single.
‘My kind of experience of the last couple years has been [of] a true audience member, and reminding myself how important it is to stand in a room with strangers and dance and get sweaty and sing and how magical that experience is,’ he later told Scott Mills.
So while we fans have been begging for new music since Harry wrapped up his multi-million-pound-grossing Love On Tour shows in July 2023, all the while, he was ensuring his return would be worth waiting for.
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and never has a truer word been spoken than in this case.
Anticipation only crescendoed when the famously offline star broke his social media hiatus to unveil Aperture’s identity, and the eventual release was even sweeter knowing the world was going in blind without so much as a snippet or poor-quality leak out there.
No one could have predicted which avenue his creativity would head down next, because, essentially, we didn’t know who Harry was anymore. In a sense, Aperture is a reintroduction.
Yet it still has all the elements of the Harry we know and adore, his own love for the song abundantly clear as he regales studio anecdotes in interviews and professes his excitement to get back on the road in summer.
Having dedicated a period to honing his songwriting and tapping into new facets of his creativity, Harry has shown a real respect for his fans. Not only does he want to give us something fresh, but he also wants us to know this isn’t just something he made purely because he could.
As such, I predict Kiss All the Time. Disco Occasionally (already dubbed ‘Kissco’ by the internet) to be another well-rounded, cohesive body of work from one of the industry’s most powerful voices.
Harry says, ‘Jump!’ and we all ask, ‘How high?’ but in return, he gives us everything we want.
Sure, churning out album after album, vinyl variant after vinyl variant, Taylor Swift-style is perfectly conducive to the modern world and how we’re always hungry to consume (no one can finish a TV series without adding their next watch to their Netflix list).
But Harry’s more traditional creative process and refusal to chase radio success (as evident from the beginning with his quirky Sign of the Times debut) is what’s allowed him to remain so successful.
He makes us miss him, and then he comes back. It’s the perfect recipe for curating a legacy that will last long beyond that of many of his peers.
I’m happy Harry Styles went away, and I’m glad we (just about) had patience in waiting for this new music – it’s all the better because of it.
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