Harry Styles - 'Harry's House' Album Review

The success of his first solo album, which was self-titled, could have been a fluke - but 2019's Fine Line broke records and boundaries. It is perhaps best known for the single Watermelon Sugar, but Fine Line is more than just an album. It is, and will continue to be, for many fans, a way of life.

Harry Styles' third album, the much anticipated Harry's House, was released on 20th May.

The only single which had been released was As It Was, which featured the voice of Styles' goddaughter Ruby Winston (daughter of Late Late Show producer Ben Winston) from a voicemail. She says "come on Harry, we want to say goodnight to you!" Within hours of the song's release, it was already being used on TikTok as a way of flashing from the present to the past. It is a catchy song, to say the least. The song really grew on me. I didn't mind it too much the first time I heard it (though I did think that the child's voice at the beginning was annoying and a little pretentious), but I liked it more and more each time I heard it. It now lives rent-free inside of my head. Harry sings in third person, and uses his name within the lyrics. Indeed, I think that the lyrics are about how his life isn't 'as it was' since he has become famous. I also think that the line 'leave America / two kids follow her,' is a reference to Harry's girlfriend Olivia Wilde, whom he started dating just three months after her breakup with fiancé Jason Sudeikis.

In simple terms, As It Was has an entirely different sound to anything that Harry gave us on Fine Line. It is a different kind of voice used to sing, and the backing track which is used is so upbeat - this is not unusual for Harry, but it is honestly difficult to describe the kind of sound which is being put across. The best advice I can give is to listen to the single. You will not be disappointed.

If As It Was was just the first taste of 'Harry's House', then it was clear that his fans were in for a very great album. 

The album opens with Music For A Sushi Restaurant, which is an odd name for a song, but then there have definitely been worst. The song starts slow and gets faster, seemingly blowing itself out of the water - or the proverbial sushi restaurant. The outro is unnecessarily long, and in my opinion boring, but online there has been a lot of support for it. I'm not sure why.

The second song on the album, entitled Late Night Talking, is very simple and effective because of it. It is here that Styles demonstrates that a big shot popstar doesn't always need to do the fanciest thing with their music in order to be a success or to have a good album. It is with Late Night Talking that I think the single As It Was has the most competition for boppiest song.

Grapejuice continues the Harry Styles fruit universe (after Kiwi, Watermelon Sugar, etc.) In it, Styles sounds like he is singing through a vintage filter. There is very little that stands out about it, however it is a homely sounding song, and immediately feels familiar to the listener. Harry has taken us home with him.

Daylight, which comes after single As It Was, also has a vintage sound - in fact, a lot of Harry's House does, and I am not sure how to feel about that. A lot of the songs so far have sounded similar to each other. 

Little Freak sounds almost like a memory. It is warm and comforting, much like earlier track Grapejuice. It is beautifully simple and, in my opinion, one of the best songs on Harry's House.

The most heartfelt on the album, Matilda was hinted at in the As It Was music video - where Harry and his female companion are wearing blue and red outfits - in the 1996 film Matilda, starring Mara Wilson, a child eats a blue and a red M&M. Again, it is a beautiful song, and one that I cannot listen to too often because I don't want it to lose its poignance. It is the Fine Line or the Sign of the Times of the album in that it is slow and heartfelt and perfect. More or less, anyway.

At first, it was difficult for me to decipher Cinema. I kept hearing 'cinnamon' - though I do have terrible hearing, so this could be something to do with that. I could envision myself dancing around my room to this with a disco ball high above my head - I need Cinema to have a music video like this!

Daydreaming is perhaps my favourite on the entire album. I am convinced that it, rather than As It Was, should have been the lead single. I think it will be one of the more popular choices for radio play because of how pleasing and club-like it is. In fact, if this came on in the club I would not hesitate to move along to it. The drums remind me of Treat People With Kindness from Fine Line, so I think it is a song meant to go with that one.

Keep Driving is a bit boring, however the breakfast lyrics interested me. That is about the only interesting, intriguing thing about this song. Keep Driving is annoying because it sticks in your head, so I suppose to some degree it is successful because it is not easily forgettable.

I do not know why Satellite is called that. I hate listening to a song and having no idea where it came from, and this is doing my head in. I found this song incredibly irritating for many reasons, but mainly because I just don't like the tune. However, I think that Styles' vocals on it are phenomenal - I knew he could sing in a high octave, but this was really quite interesting to hear.

The penultimate song, Boyfriends, is the teaser trailer played backwards.

Boyfriends is soft and satin-y. The acoustic guitar is so simple but very effective. It is a heartstopping song and I am truly in love with it. It, coupled with the final song on the album, Love of my Life, is the perfect way to finish Harry's House.

Love of my Life is the final song on Harry's House, shares a name with a song written for Queen by Freddie Mercury. It is no secret that Styles is heavily influenced by classic rock (his friendship with Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks is reference to this), and so one must wonder if the title was chosen on purpose. However, I think that this song is a little bit boring, too. I almost think that the backing track doesn't match the vocals or the kind of feelings which Styles is trying to evoke.

Overall, there is very little variation between each song on Harry's House, and that, I think, has let Styles down. One of the great things about 2019's Fine Line was that there was so much difference between each song that they almost didn't all fit onto the same album... this is not the same. This is not a theme, this is borderline brain damage.

Why does everything sound so similar?

I hate to think that Styles has conformed to a boring, predictable formula - I liked him because he didn't do that.

I definitely prefer Fine Line as an album because it was adventurous and different, however Styles has said that Harry's House is his most intimate album yet. Most intimate maybe, but best? Definitely not.