Reviewed by Drew
Harry Styles came from one of the biggest and most successful boy bands in the world: One Direction. This self-titled album was his first solo album.
The sound of the album is a mixture of different genres mainly being focused on soft rock, Brit pop and pop. There are 10 tracks on the recording making the album 40 minutes and 23 seconds long. The main theme in this album is about relationships and love, in Styles' own words, “whether it’s platonic, romantic, loving it, gaining it, losing it.” It includes different parts of the relationship from the beginning to being separated. Harry has a good mixture of slower, more bittersweet tracks like “Two Ghosts” and "Sweet Creature” but also some more upbeat party songs like “Carolina” and “Kiwi.”
“Sign of the Times” was the first single Styles released. Being a nearly six-minute long song the build ups with the drums and vocals are truly intoxicating. Another song that stood out was “Two Ghosts” with the lyrics “We're just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me” and “We're not who we used to be.” Styles said himself that “the song is about change--how people change and grow apart” and “some people who would have meant the world to you one day, could be a ghost in some time.” “It is the universal law of change.” From an instrumental standpoint, Styles definitely likes to play with different sounds. The song "Sweet Creatures" has similarities in the acoustic guitar to “Blackbird” by the Beatles. Compared to that he has more of a rock influence in the songs “Only Angel” and “Kiwi” with the beautiful electric guitar.
After coming out of One Direction, Harry definitely branched off from what he was used to in the style of music he was making. This album shows growth and maturity. I think someone from any generation could find a song that they love and makes them feel like a teenager. I would recommend this album to anyone who wants a no skip album with a perfect ratio of acoustic tracks that have a late 60s and 70s feel with some rock tracks that take inspiration from from the 70s and early 80s.
