By Andrew Hutchinson · Staff Writer
Harry is back! With the release of his fourth studio album, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” Harry Styles builds off the European techno sound and production of the lead single, “Aperture,” and shows a softer, more adult version of the former One Direction member. Styles travelled to Germany and danced in techno clubs, but along the way found maturity. The album is a party, but rather than blacking out at a bar, it’s dancing until dawn with all your best friends.
“Aperture” functions as a true lead single, opening the album with a unique, but muted, energy. Next is “American Girls” a fun but serious track about friends dating and marrying girls abroad. Although some “Harry’s House” tracks, like “Matilda” or “Grapejuice,” focused on the struggles of growth and maturity, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” highlights the loneliness of change and maturity, and the sound of the album reflects upon it. Exuberance remains nevertheless, and “Pop” channels Styles’s joyful, sunny mood. Better yet, Styles is four for four on albums without explicit lyrics! His lyrics are bizarre, and occasionally contain innuendo, but he remains proof a good discography doesn’t need to be tainted by vulgarity.
Styles and his producer deserve a great deal of credit for the cohesion of the album. After “Aperture” was released, it was uncertain whether the rest of the album would follow the slightly avant-garde model of the non-traditional lead single, or would be more like his brilliant third album, “Harry’s House”, which featured soft rock, disco-lite synth and whatever category of music with which “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” is best described (Ramen EDM?). Those questions were put to rest the moment the album released.
There are few albums that try to bring a completely new sound to an artist or genre, and many that do fail so spectacularly that they gain notoriety, like some unnamed “country albums.” One or two songs with instrumentation commonly associated with a genre does not ensure a true appreciation or mastery of it. “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” is not that. Styles’s time in Europe, dancing at the Berghain nightclub in Berlin, living in Italy and even marathon training, gives him a personal connection with the techno scene. The differences from one song to the other could be greater, as several of the songs lack a distinct hook or chorus, but this is a whole album of a new sound for the U.S. pop music scene. If this brings albums like “LUX” by Rosalia into greater popularity, Styles will have done a great service to American pop.
However, having listened through the entire album, this album is not just about a new sound. Rather, Styles is contemplating life, love and growing into adulthood. The change in relationships in transitioning to college last fall brings about the same kind of discomfort Styles describes in his 30s. While I, like many fans, may miss the craziness of “Harry Styles” and songs about fish (“Adore You”), which we enjoyed in now nostalgic summers, as we mature, our tastes refine.
This album is all about that refinement. Fun changes, hope may dim, we lose our ignorance. Like Styles, we see friends move away, we see the world harden and this album will resonate with many people. It’s musically creative in a way that reaches back to the days of the ’90s and sounds from across the pond, far better than many other similar albums, like Bruno Mars. It allows us to reach back to times many in Gen Z never experienced, with the honesty that makes it relatable. It may not reach the level of success the more stereotypical pop albums guarantee, but if more of the world marches to the beat of “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” we may find a brief window into the happiness that exists through the struggles.
