I’m going to be completely honest. I have never listened to a full Harry Styles album before “Harry’s House”, which was sort of a good thing because it really did force me to rate this album without biases based off of Styles’ past works. That being said, I can say with full confidence that the majority of this album has been added to at least one of my playlists. “Harry’s House” is his third solo studio album released on the 20th of May, 2022. It features a total of thirteen songs, all of which equate to around 42 minutes of listening time. 

The overall appeal of this album is definitely its conformity to the “normal” borders of the pop genre, with the majority of his songs being very orthodox to the usual genres of romance and relationships, but I weirdly like it. Normally with artists who have established their bases in the realm of intimate pop, the usual repetitive talk of “finding true love” or regretting leaving that special someone behind, becomes bland. And what better example to use than Harry’s ex, Taylor Swift. The usual melancholy stanzas of her previous heartbreaks and betrayals wrapped in the slow strum of guitars and piano keys is just boring, yet “Harry’s House” is different. He explores relationships in their entirety from the first song of his album to the thirteenth.

He starts the album with one of the album’s best, “Music For a Sushi Restaurant”. The signature mild lyrics and chorus are all highlighted by Harry’s beautiful range of vocals, but the best part of the song is definitely the instrumentals. The harmony between the backdrop singers and the tunes of the piano are just heavenly. The song does in fact lack a quantity of lyrics, reusing the same chorus and bridge for the entirety of the song, but the simplicity of the lines elevates the song. The lines from the song, such as “Blue bubblegum twisting ’round your tongue”, also fit the Harry Styles style (get it!) and are reminiscent of lines from his previous hit songs such as “Watermelon Sugar” and “Sweet Creature”. The follow-ups to the intro are not any less phenomenal. The album’s first six song stretch is definitely the highpoint of the album, containing instant hits such as “Late Night Talking” and “As It Was”, but these are all the more upbeat songs within his album.

Harry mixes it up exactly halfway through the album with his seventh track “Matilda”. The instrumentals are once again phenomenal, and actually features saxophone played by none other than Neuqua Valley’s own Distinguished Alumni, Joshua Johnson. Singing about the hidden pain that this so called Matilda hides away, Harry jolts his audience abruptly with a melancholy message after all those blissful feels; yet, just as quickly as the mood turned sour, it goes back to the playful and fairytale nature that we leave behind in his sixth track “Little Freak”. The rest of his album proceeds to talk about the shared experiences he has been a part of and some he wishes he will be a part of in the future.

To end it off, I am actually amazed by the quality of the album in its totality. I have casually added every single song to at least one playlist, and even though the songs all encompass the same genre, they are surprisingly versatile. On top of this, this album is one of the only no-skip albums I have ever listened to. This may be due to the relatively small amount of songs within the album as compared to other studio albums, but the quality of the songs is undeniable.

Album Rating: 8.7/10

Song Rankings:

1. Late Night Talking
2.  As It Was
3. Grapefruit
4. Music For a Sushi Restaurant
5. Daydreaming
6. Boyfriends
7. Satellite
8. Matilda
9. Daylight
10. Love of My Life
11. Keep Driving
12. Little Freak
13. Cinema