“Harry’s House” is just a magnificent album. There is not one weak song on this album and the musical production, the lyrics and of course, Styles’ vocals just make it an album worth listening to and also having in one’s music collection!
Click here to purchase Harry Styles – Harry’s House on Amazon
ARTIST: Harry Styles
ALBUM: Harry’s House
DURATION: 13 Songs (42 Minutes)
RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2022
- ‘Music for a Sushi Restaurant’
- ‘Late Night Talking’
- ‘Grapejuice’
- ‘As It Was’
- ‘Daylight’
- ‘Little Freak’
- ‘Matilda’
- ‘Cinema’
- ‘Daydreaming’
- ‘Keep Driving’
- ‘Satellite’
- ‘Boyfriends’
- ‘Love of My Life’
There is no doubt that the One Direction members have done well in their solo careers, and Harry Styles doing exceptionally well as a singer, songwriter and actor.
His music has been critically acclaimed and his self-titled album (2017) debuted at No. 1 in the US and the UK and “Sign of the Times” just recently surpassed a billion views on YouTube. But will he have the sophomore blues with his second album release? Nope.
His second album “Fine Line” (2019) debuted at no. 1 on the US Billboard 200 and had the biggest ever first-week sales by an English male artist and was included in Rolling Stones “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” (2000).
Unfortunately, for Styles who was preparing to promote his album and had to postpone his tour due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and was stuck in Los Angeles.
But the pandemic gave him the time to reflect on himself and also not being able to be private and take part in therapy and made the decision to go to Japan for five weeks in 2019 and kicking it with writer and multi-talented Nomura Kunichi.
And in those five weeks, Harry Styles would have the time to just chill, listen to music, reading books, writing poems, composing songs on his guitar and Styles had made made a temporary move to Tokyo and has said of the country, “there’s a respect and a stillness, a quietness that I really loved every time I’ve been there” and has said in interviews that going to Tokyo helped him reflect on the last seven years of his life.
And with two successful albums, I would imagine the pressure to create something better may be a bit daunting. But Harry Styles has crafted an even more impressive masterpiece with his third album “Harry’s House”, which debuted at no. 1 on the UK Albums Charts and no. 1 on the US Billboard 200, and also no. 1 in many other countries. And his album has earned him a nominee for the 2022 Mercury Music Prize.
Now, one thing that has impressed me was when Harry Styles said in an interview with Apple Music that he named the album after Hosono Haruomi’s “Hosono’s House”.
For those who listen to international music, especially Japanese music, that’s a major compliment and for Styles, the “house” concept was a metaphor for the things in his mind.
And I have listened to this album so many times now that I can say that I absolutely love the music and the lyrics for each track. In fact, this is a complete album where there are no weak tracks.
The album kicks off with “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” inspired when he and a producer ate at a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles and one of his songs from “Fine Line” began playing and he thought it was strange to hear his song at a sushi restaurant. And figured, that would be a fun title for a song and it was used in new advertisements for AirPods for Apple and donated his proceeds from his appearance in the commercial to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The song debuted at no. 8 and funky track produced by Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson.
The second track on the album is “Late Night Talking”, which is the second single off the album.
Styles debuted the song during his Coachella performance and is a catchy, upbeat track which debuted at no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and no. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. A wonderful follow-up to “As It Was”.
The third track is “Grapejuice” is a song I found myself singing in the car while driving each time it plays. “There’s just no getting through, without you”. A good song!
The fourth track is the Harry Styles’ masterpiece, “As It Was”. The first single off the album and his second no. 1 single after “Sign of the Times” and a song that spent ten weeks at no. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. And setting a record for the most streamed track on Spotify within 24 hours by a male artist and earning Styles a Guiness World Record.
It’s such an addictive song, that I still listen to it, numerous times a week.
The fifth track is “Daylight” and is a fun song best remembered for its collaboration with “The Late Late Show with James Corden” who directed the video for $300.
An upbeat and energetic song that is just a lot of fun and I have to say the Corden video really got me into this song! Especially the lyrics and it’s positive lyrics.
The sixth track is “Little Freak” is a song that I listen to a lot for the lyrics and the acoustic guitar. Another track I enjoyed on this album.
The seventh track is “Matilda” which is the fourth song on the album to reach the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 4. An acoustic guitar and piano driven track that is deep.
Styles would say of this song, “I had an experience with someone where, in getting to know them better, they revealed some stuff to me that was very much like ‘Oh, that’s not normal, like I think you should maybe get some help or something.’This song was inspired by that experience and person, who I kind of disguised as Matilda from the Roald Dahl book. I played it to a couple of friends and all of them cried. So I was like, ‘Okay, I think this is something to pay attention to.’ It’s a weird one, because with something like this, it’s like, ‘I want to give you something, I want to support you in some way, but it’s not necessarily my place to make it about me because it’s not my experience.’ Sometimes it’s just about listening. I hope that’s what I did here. If nothing else, it just says, ‘I was listening to you'”.
The eighth track is a funky upbeat song titled “Cinema” and I would imagine that this song is inspired by Styles’ girlfriend, actress/filmmaker Olivia Wilde. Wilde met Styles on her film “Don’t Worry Darling” which stars actress Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. The two fell in love while making the movie.
The ninth track is “Daydream”, an upbeat track complete with horns and features samples from the 1978 song “Ain’t We Funkin Now” by the Brothers Johnson which was arranged by Quincy Jones. A solid track!
The tenth track “Keep Driving” is a whimsical track and another solid track on the album. While the eleventh track “Satellite” is an upbeat, captivating track that I often sing along to the lyrics while driving in the car.
The twelfth track is “Boyfriends”, one of the earlier songs on the album which Styles had performed live. An acoustic track and so far the live performances of this song and the harmony are just awesome!
The final 13th track on the album is titled “Love of My Life” and is a fan favorite. Just check out the live videos and you’ll hear the audience singing along to this song.
But you can listen to “Harry’s House” and see how these songs are introspective and deep within Styles’ mind and see how much growth there was as a person and music artist and how it comes out in his music. He has evolved as a music artist and “Harry’s House” is an album that I can listen to completely on repeat. It’s that good!
But overall, the third Harry Styles album is wonderful. I know that “Fine Line” was very good and there are those that feel that is his finest work, but as his second album was a step up from his debut album with a lot of wonderful songs, his third album is even better.
“Harry’s House” is just a magnificent album. There is not one weak song on this album and the musical production, the lyrics and of course, Styles’ vocals just make it an album worth listening to and also having in one’s music collection!
Click here to purchase Harry Styles – Harry’s House on Amazon
