On Harry Styles’ “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.”
Favorites from the album: “Are You Listening Yet?”, “Season 2 Weight Loss”, “Coming Up Roses”, “Taste Back”, “Dance No More”, and “Carla’s Song”.
One huge facet of my teenage years was all the time I spent running a fan account on Twitter. It was primarily focused on One Direction, but I was liberal in my love of fandom and media. I’ve fandom-hopped many times, but I’ve gotten a lot more casual about it as I’ve gotten older (or I’m just interested in too many things to have such a singular focus anymore).
Which is possibly part of why I hadn’t watched a Zane Lowe interview until this past week. My Watch Later on any platform would make you think I have (I’ve saved so many from Harry, Tyler, the Creator, Hayley Williams, etc., over the years, and yet…) but Harry Styles for Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. convinced me since my first listen left me with too many unanswered questions.
I was heavily skeptical of the genre denotation, Disco, as I have felt at odds with Harry’s genre inspiration in the past (namely with Harry’s House versus the inspiration of Japanese city pop), but still, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Lo and behold, the album isn’t disco, by genre definitions, but when I realized he meant going to the disco, my criticisms weakened. I’ve been categorizing it as soft synthpop/house/experimental. It leans electronic but instrumental, and his band is easily the star of the album. Not to say the lyricism isn’t good or captivating (it is), but Harry’s vocals aren’t the most forward piece of the ensemble. I saw someone describe it as him being a guest on his own album, and honestly, I did not see this as a negative.
This may be my love of instrumental talking, but I loved how much Harry’s band was able to shine throughout this project, and the way they felt on even footing for parts of the project. You could feel this in the staging of Harry Styles. One Night Only In Manchester, where his band is surrounding him, all facing the center of the stage, and the audience is witnessing a jam session where Harry periodically walks out to invite them in, rather than the general central artist focus. Harry is an artist who has always respected his band, but I particularly liked this mixing. He used more voice effects, such as a bullhorn microphone that muffled his tone, creating layered, engrossing tracks.
One part of the Zane Lowe interview that surprised me was how much Harry’s path mirrored my own since 2022. From what I’ve seen, this has been a collective trajectory over the last few years – realizing the path we’re on isn’t ideal, slowing down, and re-evaluating what’s important. What’s the point of putting your all into a chosen career if it’s no longer serving you? 1
He took the time to disconnect commercialization and awards from the actual making of art. This may be controversial but – Harry’s House is my least favorite Harry Styles album. Yes, I know it won Album of the Year. Yes, I know it has its highest critical acclaim. And yes, I enjoyed it, and multiple songs made it to my playlists. But when I went to revisit it during my 767 album challenge, along with Fine Line, I was surprised by how many songs I didn’t have any memory of. When it came out, I saw a quote stating that Harry had felt like he had really held back on Fine Line, but I overwhelmingly felt the opposite.
This was also the most cohesive album he has put out to date. The flow through the album, while slowing down for an orchestral love song on “Coming Up Roses” or an acoustic crooner of “Paint By Numbers,” pulls at your heartstrings, never feeling stilted. I attribute this to the consistency of his lyricism and theme, so it doesn’t feel like a sudden jump when they start. They’re more like intermissions to the more upbeat tracks. It’s treating the album as a full art piece rather than simply a packaging of songs.
If I had to pick the weakest tracks, I’d say “American Girls” and “Taste Back,” by the most minute thread. “Taste Back” was enjoyable live, but didn’t have the same impact, lyrically, for me.
I have a hard time choosing because I still like these sonically. The sonic experience of the album was great. But while these two were catchy and easy to sing whenever they came on, their lyric choices barely stuck with me. If “American Girls” was released as an instrumental track, I’d be all over it. But I also completely see why it’s a single, just like “Aperture,” since you want the easiest to earworm as the lead track.
Overall, I thought this was a solid album, though I can place most of my enjoyment in the specific place I am in my life and how I interpreted the lyrics. I don’t think he made his best here; that award still sits with Fine Line, but he made an album that speaks to your late twenties.
And Harry has been going strong in my nostalgia category, having had a few missteps but nothing as egregious as some of my former favorites, so watching him grow over fifteen years has remained enjoyable.2 I was around twelve when I found him and still deep in the throes of a scene phase.3 As an artist myself, I appreciate being able to experience the journey for this long and glean what I can for myself and my own process.
Rating: 3.5/5
1 This is not to say I don’t understand people staying in jobs for a variety of safety reasons (health care, income stability, lack of savings/debt), but if there’s an option, don’t stay where you don’t want to be.
2 The ticket/residency situation has recently been a glaring misstep, which I, admittedly, misunderstood until this morning (I saw his residency plans, but it did not register that he did not intend to do a standard tour at all). To expect people to travel, and not keep the prices reasonable (since artists can opt into Face Value Exchange), is a questionable choice in today’s climate. This is part of a greater conversation on the continued luxurification of things (live music, books are heading on this path, well-made and ethically made clothing, to name a few) in the continued stagnation of wages, while the cost of living continues to go up. But I had hoped for a more conscious choice on his end.
3 It’s not a phase, Mom.
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