Harry's House: Home is Where the Harry is

After the success of his sophomore album Fine Line in 2019, the world has patiently awaited the arrival of Harry Styles’ third solo outing, Harry’s House. Safe to say, the wait was worth it. Harry’s House is here. Come on in.

Rating: 5/5

Harry's House London — Image by Inayah Shah

Nothing to say; everything gets in the way.

In 2019, Fine Line was released into the world, and Harry Styles was due to embark on his globetrotting tour, perfectly coined Love On Tour. However, when the world shut down at the beginning of 2020, all events – including Love On Tour – were drawn to a stop.

The pandemic gave everyone time to step back and reflect. Over the two-and-a-half-year duration where artists could not tour, it gave Styles the time and space to create his most self-assured and musically mature album.

The debut single off his album, As It Was, mimicking a similar sound to AHA’s Take On Me, was only a taster of the musical transformation he has undergone. The song laments over the topic of change, hinting maybe that the world will never be the same after the pandemic, and neither will he.

harry styles really said LOVE on tour pic.twitter.com/FLdCk0ZuDz
— ash is home || L❥VE (@sunfflouwerry) June 29, 2022

Turning a House into a Home

Harry has been under the microscope throughout the year. Whether modelling for Gucci or filming a movie, nothing this man does goes unnoticed. So when he does the talking for himself, the world sits up to listen to his music. So for Harry’s House, the main question was – how can he get any better than Fine Line, the home of his Grammy award-winning single, Watermelon Sugar?

However, Harry’s House is not actively trying to be better or different. It just naturally is. It falls into a new and improved music category that we have seen in a post-pandemic era. Artists start to feel comfortable making music they want (see Folklore by Taylor Swift). Harry’s House explores his most intimate, saddest and happiest moments, combined in 13 songs. Which invites his audience in for a real look behind the musical pop icon he is becoming (as if he isn’t already one.)

Harry’s House – First Impressions

The album opens with Music for a Sushi Restaurant (abbreviated to ‘Sushi‘ by Styles himself on his setlist). It is a strong competitor for Fine Line‘s opener, Golden. The song is a strong tour opener too. Before you can stop dancing, the album transitions into Late Night Talking, which debuted at Coachella and has chimes of Silk Sonic in the background. Harry formulated this perfectly: the album can be split into a vinyl with two different moods, suiting the album’s two halves.

The first half of the album feels like the beginning of a relationship, which progressively gets more intense, the further you explore the album. Little Freak and Daylight are two of the most lyrically beautiful songs in the first half of the album. Styles laments about somebody’s “delicate point of view” (Little Freak) and then when he wishes to be a “bluebird” to fly to his significant other (Daylight).

The strongest turning point of the album is the transition from Matilda to Cinema. Matilda is inspired by the main character of the Roald Dahl story. It is also heavily inspired by a friend who has told Harry about their fractured relationship with their family. The song feels universal, though, for the outcasts in the family, the elder sisters, and those with a chosen family. Styles did not mess around when he wrote, “you can throw a party full of everyone you know and not invite your family because they never showed you love.” (Did he lie, though?)

Crying, dancing and everything in between

From crying, Styles then gets you dancing with Cinema, in my opinion, the best song on his album. From the smooth, late-night vibe to the brilliant lyrics, “I bring the pop to the cinema.” It is by far the most mature song in his discography. If this indicates the type of music Styles wishes to make, he has an even brighter musical career ahead of him than we were all anticipating (and that anticipation was already very high).

The next run of songs is dance after dance, with so many musical genres taking force but an anthemic vibe to them all. Like Styles does, his music belongs in stadiums and the run of Daydreaming, Satellite and Keep Driving deserve to be screamed in the depths of Wembley Stadium.

Styles finishes with Boyfriends and Love of my Love to close the album. This is admittedly not the Lover era-Esque ballad that fans were expecting, which sent fans (including myself) into a spiral of theories. Boyfriends was also first performed acoustically at Coachella, where you could not hear one single other voice other than Styles and his band. The song is for the people who have ever had a boyfriend, never had a boyfriend, and everyone in-between. As Styles aptly says before he performs live, “to boyfriends everywhere, f**k you.”

Love of my Life is the orchestral and symphonic closing to the album, which Fine Line has sent the precedent of. It is not as long but just as impactful. It is the perfect song to listen to at 3am with your headphones. Or in a stadium full of devoted fans and loved ones. Something is rewarding and warm singing back to Styles himself, “baby, you are the love of my life,” and meaning every word.

Home is Where the Harry is

Harry’s House provides us with a place of refuge and comfort. He covers 13 songs that touch on various subjects, from new love, broken families, sultry cinema euphemisms, and terrible boyfriends. He does not hide from his pop music roots, nor does he succumb to them. The maturity on this album showcases that he is comfortable with what he is making. While he does not need anybody else to validate that for him, you’re more than welcome to step in to enjoy it.

The treble of albums is a rewarding insight into Harry’s career, post the boyband mania of One Direction. He has embraced his solo career with little fear of criticism and leaving little space to be compared to his bandmates. It felt like a lifetime waiting for this third album, but once you hear each song, suddenly that time evaporates. You realise he could have all the time in the world if it meant he continued making music. He is proud of the music, and we are lucky enough to listen to it. Harry’s House is a confident, summery haze, a romantic and joyful album, and a true reflection of the artist Styles has unlocked within himself.

The door to Harry’s House is now open – time to step in and make yourself at home.