Harry Styles, the internationally acclaimed musician, former boy band heartthrob, and all-around rock star, launched a surprise announcement last week that his newest album Harry’s House will be released on May 20th. It was paired with an accompanying trailer that shows Styles stepping onto a stage in an empty auditorium, before turning to the camera and smiling as a large house is raised up to stand behind him, with the singer left in the open doorway.
Little has been said about Styles’ upcoming third LP, but we can assume that it was written and recorded over the course of quarantine, which could explain the title Harry’s House, a play on us all being stuck at home over lockdown. The title could also be a reference to a 1975 Joni Mitchell song of the same name, ‘Harry’s House / Centerpiece’, with Styles often citing Mitchell as an influence.
The general aesthetic of the record appears rather understated when compared to the dramatic visuals of 2019’s Fine Line. On the Harry’s House album cover, Styles stands in a simple white blouse and jeans, bare-footed, in an abstract living room with the furniture placed on the ceiling. Light, airy synthesisers back the aforementioned trailer, but leave little to infer about the sound of the upcoming record. Harry’s House will have the longest tracklist of Styles’ solo records so far, with thirteen songs confirmed.
The first single of the LP, titled ‘As It Was’, will be released on the 1st of April.
Harry Styles’ previous albums, Fine Line (2019) and Harry Styles (2017), were met with critical acclaim. Many have compared Styles’ musicianship to that of the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks has even named Styles as the ‘’son that I never had’’), and they wouldn’t be wrong; he even once played a parody of Mick Jagger on SNL.
Harry Styles certainly had a softer sound to it than the booming progressive pop-rock of Fine Line (although that’s not to say it was without it’s rock moments; ‘Kiwi’ and ‘Only Angel’ come to mind), and a matching softer aesthetic, with the calming pink hues of the album’s marketing. The understated aesthetic of Harry’s House could infer a return to a softer, folk-led sound, but if we’ve learned anything from Styles, it’s to expect the unexpected.
Harry’s House is set to release on the 20th of May. Its first single, ‘As It Was’, will be released on the 1st of April.
Words by Alice Fortt
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