Harry Styles has grown up and already dreams of screwing around with Sting and McCartney.
He's not there yet
The imperfection in his great new album proves that in the end British musician Harry Styles is not Superman, he is like us.
Another human being.
And the truth?
It's good that way
Avi Goldberger
27/05/2022
Friday, 27 May 2022, 00:04
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Harry Styles Quiz (Eden Snigo)
In the music world it is customary that before releasing a major album, artists conduct a high-profile interview to promote it.
Girl idol Harry Styles, who released his third album "Harry's House" last week, has not broken the tradition.
Indeed, the British singer did not go for sure when he chose to hold the interview on the Howard Stern radio show (and not for the first time, by the way).
On the face of it this is an obvious choice.
The 68-year-old Stern broadcasts on SiriusXM mostly to an older audience and his show is packed with politics, very far from Stiles' usual target audience.
But like everything in Stiles' career, it was a calculated move.
Stiles wants to advance from the pop star image and start to be considered a mature and serious artist.
An interview with Stern, for him, is just another stop on the way there.
During the interview, which focused mostly on the album, Stiles figured out how to flatter and reach the new target audience.
He revealed for example that he ran for the role of Elvis Presley in the new film directed by Buzz Lorman.
“As a kid Elvis was the first character I knew, other than my family,” Stiles said.
"That's why there's something really sacred about Elvis. So I thought I would try to get the job."
Come to think of it, it's pretty unlikely that the first character Stiles will recognize as a toddler is Elvis.
Stiles was born in '94, almost twenty years after the king's death, and presumably knew the Teletubbies long before Elvis.
But when you are interviewing a retired broadcaster and trying to reach an older audience, tying yourself to Elvis is definitely the right move.
Some would say a perfect step.
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Growing up on Elvis.
Styles (Photo: Official Website, Tyler Mitchell)
And Harry Styles is always perfect.
When reviewing his 12 year career, he always comes out amazing.
Not only can nothing negative be said about him, his image manages to make him a kind of Superman of the pop world, one that one can not dislike or be impressed by.
He was the first man to appear (solo) on a Vogue cover, and another dressed in a dress;
Is a fashion icon who claims that pink is the most rock and roll color there is;
He's in a relationship with the esteemed American actress and director Olivia Wilde and has no problem being a decade older than him.
After all, he defines himself as a feminist.
Along the way, he also raises money for cancer research, runs LGBT rights campaigns and even takes an active part in the Black Lives Matter movement.
When Harry is caught with a football shirt, she will not be of one of the successful teams.
Harry will be photographed wearing the shirt of a group without a degree from a working-class city.
When Harry gets a role in cinema, it will be of a war hero in the British Army in World War II, in Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk."
Harry is such an impressive man that even after he and Taylor Swift break up - she will not write slanderous songs about him as she did on all her exes.
And there is also the music.
And even there Stiles maintains his perfection.
Although he's coming out of One Direction, the biggest boy band of the last two decades, he's not really doing pop.
From the first moment Stiles left for Kiryat Solo it was clear he was much more Robbie Williams than Justin Timberlake.
His first single, "Sign of the Times" was a rock ballad with a powerful piano that sounded like it was written in the seventies.
The song was received with great love and was a huge success.
While the careers of the other One Direction members did not rise,
Maintains integrity.
Styles (Photo: GettyImages)
The second album "Fine Lines" was released in 2019 and became one of the biggest of the year.
The big hit out of it "Watermelon Sugar", came out in May 2020, the peak of the Closure and Corona period.
The fun summer song, which deals with a sexual act of a certain kind, managed to break the virus' depression and reach number one in the United States, a rare achievement for British singers.
Now as mentioned comes the third album, the one that Harry wants to break into with the older audience, to put it in the Pantheon.
The first single from it, "As It Was", is already doing the job, more or less.
With synthesizers playing that sound like they belong to a new wave band from the 1980s and a subtle rockist accompaniment identified with indie and Britpop bands, Stiles has managed to create a quality hit.
Although he did not go for granted, "As It Was" became the biggest hit of the year so far.
First place for two months in the UK, first place in the United States as well.
Stiles brought marginal music to the mainstream.
In the full album there is no song that will make the same noise of the first single.
Apparently it's intentional.
Stiles is not Ed Sheeran, he did not try to make an album of hits.
From the cover you can understand that Stiles is going in a different and non-conformist way.
On the album cover you can apparently see Harry's house.
The ceiling is the floor and the floor is the ceiling.
Upstairs is the upside-down seating area while on the floor stand upright the lampshade - and Harry, uncombed, wearing a cropped tunic, baggy jeans, ballet shoes and looking pensive.
From the album itself it is understood that what Stiles is pondering is mostly relationships.
12 of the 13 songs deal with the relationship between him and her.
For the moments it worked, for the moments it missed.
Most of the music here is a product of computers.
There are not a lot of living tools here.
Almost all the rhythms, for example, are programmed, and live drums are found in only two of the songs.
Stiles sang quite calmly.
As the years go by his voice gets a slight hoarseness that gives him a depth that upgrades him.
The overall vibe is that of the soft rock of the seventies.
Think Donald Fagen, Fleetwood Mack or Supertrump.
Among the good releases on the album is worth listening to the third track "Grapejuice", which sounds a bit influenced by Saint-Etienne.
The other interesting sections are in the second half of the album.
Songs like the funky "Cinema", the psychedelic "Satellite" and the excellent indie-pop "Keep Driving".
Unfortunately, the content on the album does not rise to too high levels and Styles does not sound too interesting insights about relationships.
It does not seem that in any of the songs does he deserve true sincerity.
An exception to all of these passages is the minor song "Boyfriend" which tells of how men treat women badly.
Is something in Stiles' perfect image broken?
Another song that manages to intrigue is "Matilda", the only song on the album that does not talk about connections.
The song, which is accompanied by an acoustic guitar, tells in a whisper about a woman whose family abuses her and she seeks refuge from it, another life.
The album ends with a slightly pompous ballad called "Love of My Life".
The piece, for those who were apprehensive, is not a novelty to Kevin's classics.
This is a song he lamented for the love of his life that she left.
Stiles looked and sounded like he's grown up.
The image, along with the intelligent production for his new album make you want to place him in the pantheon of great, great British singers.
Sting, Paul McCartney and such.
But Stiles is not really there yet.
He may get there, but in the meantime he lacks the depth.
The cover is sophisticated, but Stiles still sings about him and her and she and he as if he's still in a boys' band.
Maybe it's good that way.
The imperfection in his album proves that in the end Stiles is not Superman, he is like us.
Another human being.
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