Lately, Harry Styles had relished being a regular guy — another runner on the road, another face in the crowd.
In September, fans were shocked when footage surfaced of Styles running the Berlin Marathon in sunglasses and a long-sleeved shirt (perhaps to cover his famous tattoos?). Some celebrities turn running a marathon into a fundraising event or an opportunity for press. The 32-year-old Styles ran the race under a pseudonym (in under three hours, no less).
During the promotional tour for his new album, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” Styles has repeatedly cited going to concerts incognito across Europe — including LCD Soundsystem in Madrid and Radiohead in Berlin — as a source of inspiration.
“It was just about getting on the other side of the audience experience,” Styles told BBC Radio 1’s Greg James. He also told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that central to his self-image is being an “ordinary person.”
That impulse to embrace the everyday can be creatively fruitful for a megastar like Styles, who’s been dogged by paparazzi and passionate fans since he was a teen heartthrob in One Direction. But without a strong artistic vision or a unique point of view, approaching music as an average Joe turns out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The music becomes average.
I’m not saying that Styles isn’t allowed to run marathons, go out clubbing, or experience joy beyond Hollywood. In fact, I encourage it. What sets an artist apart is how they refract ordinary experiences and emotions through an extraordinary lens — as when Beyoncé turned her own history with house music into a safe space from bigotry, or when Robyn turned a glimpse of her ex on the dancefloor into a monument of heartbreak and resilience. These are legends who could be considered Styles’ peers in the industry — Styles beat Beyoncé for album of the year at the Grammys, and Robyn is billed as a special guest for his forthcoming shows in Amsterdam — so it seems fair to hold him to the same standard.
With the kind of fame, wealth, and acclaim that Styles has accumulated, especially since the release of his 2022 blockbuster “Harry’s House,” I want more from his end of the bargain. I want Styles to prove he’s exceptional enough to be the one who’s onstage — especially when he expects his own audience to pay hundreds or even thousands to watch him perform.
Instead, Styles has made himself indistinct. Despite its ostentatious title, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” has very little oomph or substance (and, curiously, even less disco), making a weak case for Styles as the defining male pop star of the past decade. And yet, by many metrics, he is.
Too famous to flop
Much has been written about the recent dearth of exciting pop boys, and Styles has been well-positioned to run away with the mantle. “Watermelon Sugar” and “As It Was” are two of the biggest hits of the streaming era. So far, all of Styles’ solo albums have gone No. 1, and the aforementioned “Harry’s House” won album of the year at the 2023 Grammys.
During Styles’ reign, a slew of patchwork-tattooed, floppy-haired doppelgangers have emerged on the radio, most notably Role Model, Sombr, and Benson Boone. Although none have yet matched his commercial success, their presence has reaffirmed the demand for Styles himself. “Harry will be back any day,” Role Model quipped on his Instagram Story last November. “I’ve enjoyed filling in for the time being.”
Two months later, Styles’ newly announced residency at Madison Square Garden generated presale registrations in the eight-figure range — about 20 times the available inventory, per Live Nation. “Aperture,” the lead single from “Kiss All the Time,” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, Hot Dance/Pop Songs, and Streaming Songs charts.
All signs point to “Kiss All the Time” topping charts as well, whether reviews are glowing or scathing; Styles has reached the level of celebrity where the quality of his music is incidental. He’s adored by children and moms in their 40s and plenty of devotees in between.
Indeed, when a thirtysomething friend (and fellow lifelong Styles fan) texted to ask for my thoughts on the new album, I said I enjoyed my first listen, though it didn’t have much depth to plumb. She replied, “That’s kinda what I expect from Harry anyway.”
Styles is outshone on his own album
More than anything, “Kiss All the Time” is a triumph of production. You can thank Styles’ longtime cowriter and the album’s executive producer, Kid Harpoon, for its heady club beats, rich grooves, and head-banging highlights like “American Girls,” “Ready, Steady, Go!,” and “Pop.” (Co-producer Tyler Johnson is also credited on eight of the album’s 12 songs.)
Meanwhile, Styles takes a backseat as both a singer and a songwriter. His vocals tend to sit deep within the mix, coming to the foreground only in the album’s minimal ballads. His lyrics favor repetitive refrains and surface-level rallying cries (“If you must join a movement, make sure there’s dancing”), while the signature Styles-isms are few and far between; “Kiss All the Time” is his first solo album that doesn’t feature a fruit metaphor, a real blow to the “Kiwi” and “Grapejuice” fans among us.
There are traces of melancholy and loneliness across this tracklist — I particularly like “The Waiting Game” as an allegory for an endless parade of rejections and flings — but Styles never introspects for long. At times, he even seems to insist that he has nothing outstanding to say, no reason for us to listen to this music over anything else.
“Oh, what a gift it is to be noticed / But it’s nothing to do with me,” Styles sings in “Paint By Numbers,” the album’s worst misfire. This lyric is also printed inside its physical vinyl gatefolds.
Styles is nothing if not true to his word; the narrator of these songs wants to melt into the music, to be lost in a swirl of limbs and synths on a dancefloor. He does not wish to stand out.
The crowd-pleasing 10th track, “Dance No More,” presents a kind of thesis for the album.
“Move it side to side / With your hands up high,” Styles sings. “Keep your customer satisfied / And live your life.”
It may not be ingenious or especially thrilling, but it is an effective sales strategy. Styles is an expert in non-specific, unserious, broadly enjoyable pop music, and it’s made him a lot of money. Why stop now?
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