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!
No comments:
Post a Comment