Greyson Chance - Palladium [Review]

American singer-songwriter Greyson Chance rose to fame more than a decade ago when a video of him performing Lady Gaga's hit "Paparazzi" at a school talent show went viral. It caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres who had him perform the song on her show and also signed him to eleveneleven, her record label under which Greyson released his debut album Hold on 'Til the Night. Ask Greyson himself, however, what he considers to be his debut album, and he will cite 2019's portraits - and with very good reason. Hold on 'Til the Night has some gems on it such as "Heart Like Stone" and "Summertrain," but most of the songs did not much involve him in the writing process and are therefore not authentically his. For starters, many of the songs on the album are about female love interests (there is even a song titled "Cheyenne"), and Chance has since come out as gay. portraits therefore marked his first full-length album on which he was expressing himself as a person and as an artist authentically. (Given the perspective that Greyson recently shone light on regarding Ellen's manipulative behavior, which Charlie Puth soon after corroborated, we can add that to the list of reasons why he seems to dismiss that album.) Following portraits, Greyson proceeded to tease the follow-up titled Trophies. Unfortunately, however, that - released in June of 2021 - ended up being more of an EP than an album, with several tracks such as "Honeysuckle" and "Bad to Myself" (just to name a couple) being released as stand-alone singles but not making it to Trophies. (Greyson himself expressed his frustration with the record label interfering with that album's process, resulting in it being a different product than he had intended.) 2022's Palladium is ultimately the gift to fans who were anticipating a proper, full-length album following portraits. It features thirteen tracks as well as more of an overarching theme and narrative than Trophies does (or, for that matter, even portraits). This is, in fact, arguably the most cohesive body of work that the singer has thus far given us.

Palladium opens with its title track, which I am going to skip over discussing here only because I did already review it as a single release. The album then gives us "Aloe Vera," a song that seems to be addressing someone who thinks themselves somewhat of an offbeat hipster or something to that effect. (I am quite honestly not sure what terminology to use.) The person potentially even fancies themselves somewhat of a Bohemian given the line: "...When the money ain't there, then you just don't eat." Greyson is no stranger to using words to describe someone that would normally be seen as insults but that he is using affectionately, and his choice of word here is motherfucker: "You reading In Cold Blood like the motherfucker that you are." The song has a very slow, sultry beat, and it's very airy and soulful. I love when Greyson goes up into falsetto in the chorus: "'Nobody knows my baby.'" We then get "Down & Out," a mellow but sonically fun song with fluttering piano. A soft piano rock song in the vein of Jack's Mannequin and The Fray, the song seems to be lyrically addressing a relationship that left the speaker worse for wear: "I now know I can't be what you wanted," he laments in the pre-chorus, "when you pulled apart my body seam by seam." "Watchtowers" is a very short track at only a minute and eleven seconds, acting as somewhat of an interlude. It's a very beautiful song, as short as it is, opening on uplifting somewhat echoed wordless vocals which sound female to me, but I could not find any credit regarding who it might be. (Greyson is capable of hitting very high notes, as he proves right in this song even, so it could be him, but it doesn't sound like him to me.) It remains a very low and quiet song throughout, with piano providing the main accompaniment to Greyson's falsetto vocals, which definitely take the lead at the very front of the track. (The volume of his voice is refreshing, however, given music's recent trend of burying vocals.) It lyrically seems to be asking someone (possibly himself) to help him stay on a path toward personal healing and progress.

"Black Mascara" is, without a doubt, one of my favorite tracks on Palladium if not my favorite. It opens on gentle acoustic guitar and piano reminiscent of The Beatles (although its somewhat vintage sound also brings to mind Lana Del Rey, especially her Ultraviolence album.) This is an interesting one because I don't think that it's from Greyson's own perspective but rather from the perspective of famous celebrity women (which the visual lyric video released alongside it seems to support). I am once again reminded of Lana Del Rey - in this case her song "Dark but Just a Game." "...Their stories all end tragically," Del Rey sings in that song. "Sweet, what-whatever, baby, and that's the price of fame - a tale as old as time..." Chance seems to be tackling a similar topic here: "One day," he declares in the second verse, "I'll have some money after my funeral, honey. They'll say I was a legend - gone way too soon for heaven." I really like how the track gets a little louder and little more energetic closer to the end when it brings electric guitar into the mix, making it a soft rock song. "Mercury Year" is another track driven by piano (which is my favorite instrument and is approximately 50% of why Greyson caught the media's attention in the first place). It's a beautiful song and makes reference to the final song on the album in the second verse: "...When I drove off and you sang the balcony song..." (We then get "Athena," but this is another one that was released prior to the album, so I already reviewed it.) "Pallas," like "Watchtowers," is another short one at about a minute and fourteen seconds. It opens on an ambient sound that reminds me a bit of the Lost main title, and it's a unique one because there are two vocal layers that are out of sync, which is not something that you hear very often in music. It lyrically, as is the case with a few other songs on the record, addresses a relationship that has ended, leaving Greyson in need of healing: "I need some love now. I thought you were the one, holding my heart like it's palladium." I love the reference to the album title; like I said, this is, without a doubt, his most cohesive album yet.

"Homerun Hitter" is the third and final pre-release song, so it's another one that was already reviewed on this blog, but I will add that Greyson did comment on it specifically in a recent interview, saying that it's about thinking that he had everything in a relationship that since ended but then realizing that he is no longer sure what he wants. He pointed out that it's a very important song to him and helped him move past a breakup (which was likely with his ex-boyfriend Michael). Like "Watchtowers" and "Pallas," "Panthers" is yet another short one at only one minute and thirty-eight seconds. It is, as is much of the album, piano-based, but there is also a very low synth, and Chance seems to be singing about an unrequited love: "Paint my face in hope, darling... If only I could be what you want, be the target of your love." It's a nice song, but my only real complaint with it is its brevity since it sort of does abruptly cut off without a satisfying conclusion. Palladium then gives us one of the album's singles (complete with a cinematic music video), "My Dying Spirit." It makes sense that Chance would release this one as a single and music video because it's definitely one of the bigger sounding songs on the album and also somehow seems to be one of the most personally raw. In the second verse, for example, he addresses two personal issues that he has addressed previously in his music: (1) his eating disorder on "Bad to Myself" and (2) his habitual drinking on "stand." "I'm hanging on needless hunger," he admits, "keeps the tears out the devil's eyes. I don't eat because he tells me that it's fine. Barely even standing now. Goddamn, I need another round." It's a piano rock track, another one reminiscent of bands like Jack's Mannequin and The Fray, and I love its inclusion of a gospel-esque choir. Most of Palladium takes pride in its raw simplicity, but this track is definitely one that stands out, and I wholeheartedly mean that as a compliment; it's a highlight for sure.

The penultimate effort on the album is "Hemingway, 74 rue de Cardinal," definitely another highlight. In fact, this is up for favorite song from the album. (It is kind of hard to choose between this and "Black Mascara.") Carried along primarily by acoustic guitar and piano as well as beautifully harmonized vocals, it has an absolutely beautiful and haunting melody especially in the chorus, making it one of the album's more infectious and memorable tracks if not the most memorable.. The lyrics are also so intense and hard-hitting, seemingly about Chance grieving the end of a relationship and wondering what legacy he will leave behind as an artist, contrasting himself from poets and folk musicians such as Ernest Hemingway (the song's namesake), Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell: "I'm no Dylan in the Village putting typewriters to shame. I've got stacks of empty paper. I've got nothing to my name." This could possibly be referencing Greyson's lack of mainstream success despite the several albums and EPs under his belt and the fact that he debuted as a viral sensation. While I don't care much about charts when it comes to music (the pop music fandom is seriously so toxic with its talk of "flops" and obsession with awards and chart numbers), there is a level of frustration for me because while yes, he does create alternative music that wouldn't normally be played on pop radio, it's not that far removed from the music released by, say, Lewis Capaldi, who catapulted into mainstream success seemingly overnight. There isn't even a Wikipedia page for this album. Very little information about the album's credits and whatnot are available on Genius, and there are also very few lyrical annotations on Genius. He simply doesn't get the recognition that he deserves, and that is a bit frustrating. Greyson, however, seems to overall be happy with where he is; when asked in the aforementioned interview how he feels about his place in the music industry, he said that he is in a good place.

The closing act is "The Balcony Song," alluded to in the previously discussed "Mercury Year." The track features minimal musical accompaniment, dominated by Chance's gentle vocals. I am honestly not sure what the song is about or who it's addressing because on one level, you could argue that it's addressing an ex-lover who has hurt him: "The fire of the night, you started wars inside the corners of my chest, the vicious look inside your eyes when you lit my skin like a match." It's possible that the "lighting" of his skin is intended to be a sexual metaphor, but like I said, I am not sure because he shortly thereafter follows that up with, "Hell, I'll never make it to your age," which suggests that the song is about someone considerably older. Could it be his father whose influence on him he has previously addressed on tracks like "Hit & Run" and "stand"? Although not my favorite track from Palladium, it is still a strong number and serves as a great closer. In that interview that I keep citing, Greyson said that he was going for a much more alternative sound on this album than he has in the past which I think is definitely evident, especially on "Black Mascara," and this album definitely showcases his talent especially as a poetic lyricist. It is also, as previously stated, his most cohesive body of work to date. Hold on 'Til the Night, portraits, and Trophies are all bodies of work that lack an overall focus or direction; they're just sort of collections of songs, but that is definitely not the case on Palladium. Songs build on the same story and even occasionally reference each other. In that sense, it's definitely his strongest work thus far, but that's not to say that it's flawless. You're not going to find the kind of catchy hook like you do on "shut up" or a fun, playful beat like on "black on black," and I think that Sam Thomas says it best in his review of the album: "...It does suffer from a touch of repetition. The body of work is a solid example of sonic cohesion, but some songs... blend slightly." If, however, you're looking for lyrics that pack a punch, Palladium is a good place to start.

In This Moment - Blood 1983 - EP [Review]

In summer of 2012, American metal band In This Moment released Blood, the album that is arguably the biggest turning point of its career. Not only was it in a change in direction toward a somewhat more accessible, more melodic sound, it was also the first album to experiment with more electronic sounds which would be amplified even more so on Black Widow, the band's first album on a major label since Blood was its final album with Century Media. In addition, although not my personal favorite (it's tough for me to choose between Black Widow and Ritual), I have seen many fans cite Blood as their favorite In This Moment album. All of this is just to say that with 2022 marking the tenth anniversary of the album, it makes sense that the band would want to commemorate it in some way, and they did so in a unique way. Rather than reissuing a remaster of the album and/or a reissue with some outtakes (which may or may not even be possible given that, again, Blood was originally released under Century Media; I am not sure), they released Blood 1983, an EP which features a new instrumental intro plus new recordings/reimaginings of four songs from the album stylized with synths so that they have a 1980s influence, hence the title. What is the significance of the year 1983, you may ask? I honestly have no idea, but it's no secret that musicians and storytellers have, for several years now (especially since the birth of the popular Stranger Things series in 2016), been memorializing and romanticizing the 1980s in one way or another, so this could just be In This Moment jumping on that bandwagon, which I am here for. (Plus, reimagining previous records seems to be a relatively popular trend amongst rock and metal bands right now. Within the last five years alone, Evanescence did it with Synthesis, Lacuna Coil recently did it with Comalies XX, and In This Moment now does it with Blood 1983.)

As previously mentioned, the EP opens with an instrumental intro simply titled "1983." Pretty short at just under a minute and a half, it begins and ends with low, indiscernible whispering and is heavily synthy and atmospheric, with the synths buzzing and waving throughout. If you're a fan of Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein's eerie and atmospheric synth work on the Stranger Things score, then you will very likely enjoy this piece. (My only issue with it, in fact, is that I wish that it were longer.) We then get the new version of "Adrenalize," and there are honestly a couple of tracks on this EP that I prefer to the original versions, this definitely being one of them. The dark, industrial synth just completely makes this version, in my opinion, and it's very, very, very (did I say very?) different from the version found on Blood, the guitar riff of which (the original, that is) easily makes it one of In This Moment's heaviest tracks of their discography thus far. In This Moment frontwoman Maria Brink sings the verses in a lower register than she does on the original version, giving this version of the song a darker, somewhat more eerie feel, although the melody and pitch of the chorus is mostly unchanged. This is one that I will most definitely be opting to listen to over the original most of the time and is probably the brightest highlight of the Blood 1983 EP for me. Then comes the 1983 version of "Burn," another one that I prefer over the original (although the difference isn't as great as it is for "Adrenalize"). I love how soft and atmospheric it is compared to the original version, and Brink's low, whispery vocals work perfectly alongside the synths. The track still gets a bit heavy beginning with the chorus and into the second verse, but it's still a very different take on this EP. (An interesting although probably trivial note that I want to make is that "Burn" is the only reimagined song present on the EP that was not originally a single from Blood.)

"Blood 1983" is another interesting take on its original version, although the synthy opening is not as surprising here because the 2012 version is an example of where the band began experimenting with electronic sounds. The original version of "Blood" is a memorable highlight from the band's career thus far, and this might be a different situation from the first two songs because even though I enjoy this version, I do still prefer the original. I do love how on this version, however, the synthy motif continues after the track gets a bit heavy. I don't think that the concept of synth-metal had ever crossed my mind prior to hearing this EP, yet here we are, and that's probably what I love the most about this EP - how unique it is in its approach. (Don't misunderstand - I am not saying that metal music has never before incorporated synths and electronic production before this EP. I have, in fact, already given examples in which In This Moment did it themselves. I just haven't really heard it done quite like this before. This EP really doesn't resemble any other band that I have ever listened to.) The EP then closes with its version of "Whore," another memorable staple from the band's career and definitely one of my favorites to hear live. (I have thus far seen the band three times, and you can check out my In This Moment tag to read my reviews of the shows.) Once again, I probably prefer the original Blood version to the version present here; in fact, if I had to choose a least favorite on the EP, it would probably be this. I love the classic '80s synth that comes in after the chorus is heard for the first time, but this version is much softer than the original version. Brink even sings it in a much gentler manner, and the lyrical nature of the song calls for it to be loud and angry. The 1983 version simply doesn't have the affect that it should. All in all, however, In This Moment has definitely given fans something special here. My only real complaint, in fact, is that I wish that they had redone the entire album rather than just four songs.

VV - The Foreverlost - Single [Review]

"The Foreverlost" is former HIM frontman Ville Valo's third single from his upcoming debut studio album Neon Noir, set to be released on January 13, 2023 under the initialized moniker VV. It follows the 2020 three-track EP Gothica Fennica Vol. 1 (all three songs of which will be featured on the album), "Loveletting" (reviewed here), and "Echolocate Your Love" (reviewed here). "The Foreverlost" sounds like something that you might expect to hear in The Lost Boys, carried primarily by synth and heavy guitar. It reminds me a bit of Billy Idol (whom HIM has actually covered live) but with a heavier, darker, and more gothic edge. My only fault with it really is the same fault that I have with "Loveletting" and "Echolocate Your Love" - I feel that Ville's vocals are not loud enough, drowned out a bit by the instrumental. This, however, seems to be a modern trend amongst rock and metal; Evanescence's 2021 album The Bitter Truth is another example of an album on which that is somewhat of a problem.The song's lyrics are very abstract and poetic - definitely up for interpretation. Ville has offered commentary on the song's meaning, but the only problem is that that, too, is rather abstract: "[It's] yet another loud love song depicting the burlesque butoh between two world-weary souls. All my Carmina Buranas and could've should've would'ves rolled into a neat little Gordian knot of the gothic variety." To put it simply, it's more or less a narrative that Ville has explored plenty in the past via melodious goth tunes ("Join Me in Death"): star-crossed love à la The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

VV - Echolocate Your Love - Single [Review]

Former HIM (Finnish goth metal band which disbanded in 2017) frontman Ville Valo (who currently goes by VV as his artist name) is set to release his debut solo album Neon Noir sometime next year (in 2023) and has thus far released three singles from it - "Loveletting" (reviewed here), "Echolocate Your Love," and "The Foreverlost." (He also released a three-track EP titled Gothica Fennica Vol. 1 in 2020, but, as far as I know, it has not yet been revealed whether or not any of those three songs will be featured on the album.) "Echolocate Your Love," as was the case with the previous four songs Valo released, is very much in the same vein as HIM, managing to be both soft and heavy at the same time, melodious and beautiful, and simultaneously electronic and organic. Synths and guitar carry most of the weight of the track, even sometimes drowning out Ville's vocals (which, as much as I absolutely adore the song, is one of my faults with "Loveletting"). Ville himself commented on "Echolocate Your Love," saying, "It's a sonic step-by-step guide on how to survive, and perhaps even enjoy, the realm of VV with its abundance of things that go bump in the night. It's a teary mascara marathon between Robert Smith and Ozzy, with a dash of hope." While I absolutely love his description here as it's 100% spot-on, that is also a perfect description of HIM, not just VV, which makes sense because he really is just continuing with HIM except without the other guys. The steps to which Valo refers are found primarily in the bridge between the verses and the chorus: "If you want to dream what I dream," he gently instructs in his signature velvet vocals, "don't close your eyes. If you want to feel what I feel, kill the light." I also wanted to make note of an interpretation that I saw from a fellow fan on social media. Named Timea, they say, "I'm trying to build this song around Hekate because she is the mystical goddess of darkness and the Moon. The three-faced one who shows the past, the present and the future. But there is the mystique of love in it, the moon is the other side of the sun, like love, not only the sunny side has a shadowy side. Submerging in the sea, I think the subconscious is the experience of the unconscious, when a person is tormented by suspicions and cannot face them until he descends into the depths. For me, echolocate your love means certainty when we are waiting for confirmation that this love is real." This is a beautiful and unique analysis of the song, and it absolutely holds up if you look at the song's poetic lyrics, especially in the second verse. While I prefer "Loveletting," this is definitely another strong single from Neon Noir.

Harry Styles - Harry's House [Review]

Harry's House is English pop-rock musician Harry Styles' third studio album as a solo artist after the disbanding of One Direction. The album follows Harry Styles (2017) and Fine Line (2019) and is quite honestly probably his best album so far, which is a very tall compliment because Harry Styles and Fine Line are both fantastic albums. Harry's House just somehow feels rawer and realer and even more beautiful, and I definitely think that it's lyrically his strongest work so far and offers his best vocals to date. I remember when I first saw the tracklisting, I expected the opening track to be a soft, atmospheric number, and I predicted that for two reasons: (1) that is typical of Harry, as evidenced by "Meet Me in the Hallway" and "Golden") and (2) the title - "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" - created a calm and serene image in my mind, but the song is ultimately anything but music for a sushi restaurant. It's fun and funky, music that I would expect to hear at lively parties rather than at sushi restaurants (which, from my own experience, usually play mellow music such as instrumental eastern music or classical). As much as I do like the song, however, it's far from being my favorite from the album because it's lyrically pretty simple - a love song admiring the beauty of the speaker's lover: "Green eyes, fried rice, I could cook an egg on you," he opens, obviously putting a spin on the popular saying that it's so hot outside that you could cook an egg on the pavement so that the love interest is the pavement, meaning that they're "hot" in the other sense of the word. It is, as I said, a very fun song but just not, in my opinion, the best that album has to offer, although if you care to see Harry Styles as a mermaid (using excellent effects if I may say so myself), then definitely check out the song's cinematic music video.

We then get "Late Night Talking," and along with the opener, it's likely about Harry's partner Olivia Wilde. Styles is no stranger to incorporating retro vibes into his music ("Treat People with Kindness"), but it's arguably most prominent on Harry's House, with "Late Night Talking" serving as an example, sounding very much like a '70s pop song with a hint of the synth that would become more popular in the '80s. It's upbeat and playful like "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" while also being a more reserved, with lyrics referring to a lover with whom Harry enjoys... well, late night talking. He also expresses a desire to be a source of comfort, declaring that "if you're feeling down, I just want to make you happier, baby." There are also hints that the relationship is at least temporarily long-distance because he then follows that up with "Wish I was around; I just want to make you happier, baby." It's fun, but Harry's House still has not dipped into its true highlights, which it first does on its third track, "Grapejuice." The very first time that I heard this song, my immediate thought was that it reminded me of Gorillaz / Damon Albarn, not only because of the funky groove but also because of the vocals, which are reminiscent of Albarn's especially when his vocals are digitally filtered a bit at exactly the 1:00 mark. It's a mellow earworm and is basically a love letter to red wine. The song might be another one about a lover, but I'm not so sure; I think that the "lover" might in fact be wine. He starts with a story involving his going to buy flowers for his lover but then deciding to buy a bottle of wine instead. The wine does not seem to be a gift for his partner but rather for himself, as he then goes on to say in the second verse that he is a "couple glasses in." (While he does refer to all of the places that "just me and you" have been, I, again, think that he is addressing the wine.) Later in the song, he croons that "there's just no getting through the grape juice blues," suggesting that he is drinking this bottle of wine with an air of melancholy.

Harry's House then offers up its lead single "As It Was" (which I am going to skip over in this review only because I already discussed and reviewed it here). Dreamy and playful while also light and airy,"Daylight" is definitely one of my favorites. (What's my #1 top favorite? Well, you will have to stay tuned to find out!) As previously mentioned, long distance seems to be a recurrent theme on Harry's House, with it being referred to several times on several different songs. "Daylight" seems to be another example of this: "If I was a bluebird," he sings playfully in the bridge, "I would fly to you." (While probably a coincidence, it's worth noting that when I saw Harry live Halloween weekend 2021, he was dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and did an emotionally raw rendition of "Over the Rainbow," which features the line "somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly." Bluebirds are said to represent hope, so it might not be a coincidence that Styles brings that imagery into this song.) I just adore this song's playful, hopeful, and airy quality, and it's definitely, as I said, one of my favorites from the album. With that being said, however, while there isn't a single song on this album that is bad, there are definitely ones that I like better than others, and "Little Freak" is one of my lesser favorites. It is a very soft and atmospheric ballad featuring gentle guitar and synths that reflects on a relationship that seems to have since ended. The narrator wishes that the relationship didn't end the way that it did: "...jumped in feet first, and I landed too hard," he laments in the third verse, "a broken ankle; karma rules." It's like he's saying that he fell too hard and too fast for this person and paid the price. It's such a beautiful song, and I do love it; it just doesn't emotionally hit me as hard as some of the others do.

As a perfect example of a song that does hit me really hard emotionally is "Matilda," not only because I just love the song but also because I find myself relating to the lyrics. It's another very soft acoustic ballad with Styles' gentle and velvety vocals carrying it forward. It reminds me a lot of The Fray, especially when Harry sings in falsetto in the bridge: "You don't have to go; you don't have to go home." As per Harry himself, the song's lyrics are based on someone he actually knows whom he disguises as the titular Roald Dahl character, expressing empathy toward them for having had a rough home life and a very conflicted relationship with their family. The speaker tells them that it's okay to let go of toxic people even if they're family: "You can let it go," he encourages in the chorus. "You can throw a party full of everyone you know and not invite your family 'cause they never showed you love. You don't have to be sorry for leavin' and 'growin' up." So emotionally raw and moving, this song is such a gem and definitely one of the album's strongest numbers. I do remember seeing, however, a meme that depicted a sad Spongebob vs. a partying Spongebob, with the text referring to the transition on Harry's House between "Matilda" and "Cinema," and it was definitely accurate. The album is overall very soft and mellow, but there are spots that pick up in energy, and this is one of those spots. The song has somewhat of a disco groove to it with Styles' soulful voice appreciating the beauty and uniqueness of someone (likely a lover given the suggestive lyrics near the end: "you pop when we get intimate"), comparing them to a movie: "I dig your cinema." While not necessarily a highlight for me, as I said, there is no song on this album that is bad, and this song is a lot of fun and definitely unlike anything Harry has done to date.

The next two tracks on the album are two of my favorites. "Daydreaming" is an upbeat dance track that once again brings in disco and funk influence, and the "ahyee-yah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah" motif (which is borrowed from The Brothers Johnson's 1978 song "Ain't We Funkin' Now") that repeats throughout is so cheerful. (In fact, I remember first hearing it and experiencing a boost of serotonin that I didn't know I needed thanks to that hook.) The track is possibly another love letter to Olivia Wilde, as it seems to address a lover with whom Harry is so happy that he feels like it's a dream. After all, wasn't it Dr. Seuss who said that you know that you're in love when reality is finally better than your dreams? "Stay until the morning," he declares in the second verse, "'cause, baby, lovin' you's the real thing," and I call special attention to these lyrics because I like how they very likely have more than one meaning. The speaker's asking the subject to stay the night could very well have a sexual implication, with his affirmation that "lovin' you's the real thing" being his way of assuring that it's not just a one-night-stand. Fitting the song's title and the aforementioned Dr. Seuss sentiment, however, he could also be saying that he would rather spend the night with this person than go to sleep because that time would be better than anything he could ever dream about. "Keep Driving" is another one of my very favorites because it's so sonically beautiful and has this air of nostalgia around it. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's like it brings you back to a simple, happy time, even if it's imagined as opposed to an actual memory. The lyrics have a sort of stream-of-consciousness style to them which is another reason I really love it, and it thematically reminds me a lot of "At Full Speed" by Jack's Mannequin. Both songs are, on the surface, about escaping hardships by taking a road trip (or even running away altogether) to a new location with a loved one, living in the moment as you're doing so.

"Satellite" has a synthy, '80s sound to it and sounds a lot to me like something that Troye Sivan might have done, especially on Blue Neighbourhood. It lyrically addresses something that Harry has definitely addressed plenty before, especially on his first album: a lack of communication. "Boyfriends" is definitely another highlight for me (especially because it's another one with which I find myself relating). It's a soft folksy song with acoustic guitar that is pretty brilliant lyrically and conceptually. It addresses men's toxic behavior in relationships, acknowledging that it's cyclical and continues in part because the person who is being neglected and/or emotionally abused in the relationship is in love. This is addressed multiple times such as when he points out that "you love a fool who knows just how to get under your skin, [but] you, you still open the door." He also calls back to "Daydreaming" in the line "you lay with him as you stay in the daydream." What makes this song especially clever, however? It opens and ends the same way, with the line: "Ooh... fool, you're back at it again," except it's backmasked in the opening. Isn't it fitting that a line about being "back at it again" would bookend the song, given that the song is about the cyclical nature of toxic behavior? It's a great song, but here we arrive at my favorite song from Harry's House. What do I love about "Love of My Life"? I love the punctuating synth which reminds me a great deal of MARINA's "End of the Earth." I love the lyrics, which can either be interpreted as a love letter to the narrator's titular lover or as a love letter to England (the latter of which was apparently the intent according to Harry). The piano outro alone (which can be heard in reverse in the album trailer), however, is enough to skyrocket this song to my top favorite not only from this album but possibly from Harry's entire discography thus far. It sounds like what being in love feels like, and it brings tears to my eyes and sends chills down my spine. It's an absolutely beautiful masterpiece as is the album as a whole - the album of 2022. Bravo!