The news of Harry Styles releasing a fourth album is enough to make any teenage fan swivel their head. As an 18-year-old pop fanatic, I’m no different.
When March 6th eventually swung around, I was buzzing with excitement. Each of Harry’s previous three albums can be related to different eras of my life. Harry Styles, the album, takes me back to the final days of primary school, fresh out of frilly socks and blue-chequered rompers. Fine Line blasts me back to the pandemic, listening to the track ‘Golden‘ on the decking in my garden, communicating with friends via Zoom. Harry’s House marked my first big concert experience; Wembley Stadium swathed in feather boas is a memory like no other.
Kiss All the Time. Disco Occasionally is no different. A fresher at a university in a new town, listening to the album in my own little uni room for the first time will stick with me for life. All the albums can be associated with happy times in my life, so how could I choose between them, and review them musicality-wise?
I decided to interview Professor Robert Adlington, Head of Research at the Royal College of Music. Luckily for me, he just so happens to be my dad.
I chose three songs from the new album, known affectionately by fans as ‘Kissco’, for Professor Adlington to listen to: ‘Aperture’, ‘Coming Up Roses’, and ‘Are You Listening Yet?’. After he had listened to these three diverse tracks, we sat down to discuss it.
“This is going to be different” was the first sentence to come out of his mouth after listening to the lead single, Aperture. Styles has spoken in recent interviews about his inspiration for the vibe of the album stemming from LCD Soundsystem, and to Adlington, the electronic influence was clear. “Electronic tracks often have layers of music not aligned”, he tells me-“it creates a slight sense of drifty unease.” We both agreed that for Styles, this is a different, perhaps more progressive take, with the start of the track signalling a new era for the renowned pop star. The chorus, on the other hand, with the repeating lyric ‘we belong together’, was surely written with sold-out stadium tours in mind, audiences swaying to the beat in sync.
“He’s almost trying to do two things at the same time” says Adlington.
Coming Up Roses was a different story. The track begins with a string accompaniment, in pizzicato style, which Adlington explains to me as the plucking of strings. “It’s almost a classical idiom”.
“It evokes classical concert hall or opera, a refined environment“, Adlington comments.
For Styles, this is certainly a new take on pop. The prof informs me that, in fact, the composition of this song is unusual for most pop songs. With pop tracks normally written in 4/4 beats, Coming Up Roses sets itself apart, as it is written in ‘compound metre’— each of the 4 beats divided into 3: “this gives it a lilting feel, uncommon in pop and seen much more frequently in jazz and classical music“.
Adlington had much less to say on Are You Listening Yet?. His least favourite of the three, its spoken delivery of the lyrics sets it apart from the others; “it’s much more rhythmic compared to the others, with the same driving, insistent beat“. The electric guitar solo, most likely designed with his lead tour guitarist Mitch in mind, sets it up for stadiums he’ll be encountering in the summer.
This is certainly an album that keeps us guessing. What ‘styles’ will we see from Harry next?
