Harry Styles
Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally
Columbia /Sony (release: 6.3.)
Magnificent pop for stylers, free spirits and full-time fans. Harry Styles isn’t taking any risks, but he’s certainly not standing still with the new album.
Main character from birth
When Harry Styles became visible again for the first time in a long time on February 28th, 2026, at this year’s Brit Awards, you could immediately see what makes this guy so extraordinary and irresistible.
The 32-year-old released the first single from his new album. “Aperture” is of course another hit. The song has everything that people who enjoy pop expect, but it doesn’t deliver a one-size-fits-all product, but can be connected to meta-discourses because Styles’ music always thinks about and reflects its external impact. By the way, I have no idea whether it was intentional or accidental. Anyway: slow build-up, crazy chorus, dance floor! The track is pleasantly unappealing, there’s nothing to criticize it for, especially not selling out or anything like that.
“In no good state to receive. Go forth, ask questions later. Trap doors, you’re toying with me. Dance halls, another cadence,” the song says. It addresses – accompanied by an excellent video – nocturnal escapism, which can always be read as an escape from oneself or simply as a maneuver of self-dissolution in groups, clubs, or nights. Does it represent the theme of the entire album? Let’s see…
So the really big stage again. At the awards, Styles, jumped around by dancers wearing jeans, does what no one else has done at this level for a long time: be casual.
Dressed in a crispy starched shirt and tie and 1930s trousers, he leaves no doubt that he is in his natural habitat. His feather-light stroll on the stage leads to a jagged choreo that wouldn’t have forgiven any mistakes, no matter how small (which is why none were made), and leaves the audience loving without will. Styles is basically out of this world when he’s just trying to do everything right and at the same time seem boyishly mischievous and somehow broodingly grown-up. He, completely body, completely in the moment, can allow himself anything because he has basically already achieved and experienced everything. He is on the plateau, the total descent into oblivion no longer seems to be a threat. There is an overlap with Robbie Williams here, but probably without all the alcohol, all the drugs, constant depression and stage fear.
Live up to the name
As of 2010, Styles was a member of one of the last boy bands of the old style. “One Direction” had previously made it through British casting hell and was super successful, but broke up in 2015, and Styles was finally able to start his solo thing after the tour through screaming crowds of girls in 2017. Nothing else was expected, as he stood out from the group in so many different ways, like Beyoncé from “Destiny’s Child”.
This was followed by solo albums, a world tour, stadiums, No. 1 hits in the USA, surviving the pandemic, four films, the grief over the death of his friend and former bandmate Liam Payne two years ago and always MODE! Big collars, glittery dungarees, necklaces, feather boas, glasses, in short: GUCCI, CAMP – all presented with grandeur and a defiant, silty matter-of-factness – contributed to an overall image that took him to heights that suggested intangibility, but at the same time made everything about him compatible with what was currently lying around in pop culture. Genderfluidity, bisexuality, self-iconization. Away from one-dimensional sexuality, away from all the little girl fan fiction that had been circulating for years. That was partly courageous, partly calculated, but above all one thing: successful.
In the meantime, Styles rowed back a bit in terms of style, because who wants to wear nail polish and a pearl necklace when every Fynn-Luca from Kleinkleckersdorf now does that too. Here again: demarcation, immediate check of your own public persona, change of direction. And the music?
One disco after another disco
Styles took four years for his fourth album. In between, there was a stop in Berlin, where, OF COURSE, he could be found in Berghain, buying real estate, pottering around in the Hansa studios and taking part in the marathon under the pseudonym “Sted Sarandos”. Evil tongues even claimed that he would systematically loot the Humana shops in precarious neighborhoods, but nothing is known for certain. Okay, the album:
12 tracks, not all of them a banger, BUT: There’s a lot of great things in there…
What is striking: the crystal clear, not to say crystal-like polished production. With attention to detail and subliminally innovative, the pieces move between yacht rock elements, Pet Shop Boys vibes, electro underground and sophisticated slow disco productions of the lesser-known variety. It’s all very bouncy, very ambitious, but also transparent. Styles doesn’t want to be accused of being caught in self-repetition spirals, is obviously open to advice from outside, but still uses old patterns again: VERSE-BRIDGE-BRIDGE-REFRAIN. The well-known, tried and tested concept.
You wait for the moment when you can jump again, and that moment comes as reliably as the shower after the club. Lyrically it’s all about me, we, the MOMENT.
In “American Girls,” Styles sings softly, almost silvery, and shimmering through in a “Kings of Convenience” way. That’s pretty. It somehow suits him.
“Ready, Steady, GO!” reliably goes to 12 in terms of chorus, but via a very quiet guitar part, which somehow seems unusual.
“Are You Listening Yet” has chanting with tribal drums and “Taste Back” offers, embedded in song structures, electronic fun games like those performed by various Australians 18 years ago.
“The Waiting Game” features the most depressed vocals, but also some appealing strumming in the background. “Season 2 Weight Loss” brings joy with its snare thunderstorms running through it, and “Coming Up Roses” is really great. Yacht rockiness, strings, gentle vocals, warmth. “Pop” is also great. Driving beat, great bass lines, escapism!
“Dance No More” is an LA dance song in which you can hear the old wood in the recording studio that probably wasn’t even there. Choirs, subliminal chanting. A great piece for sorting bottles in the hallway.
“Paint By Numbers” is a cuddly song with guitar, where Styles’ singing is, funnily enough, very reminiscent of Damon Albarn’s.
“Carla’s Song” concludes. Light-footed, quite conventional, but with angelic choirs, he would send us off into the dawn if we had gone through.
The arena beckons again
Because – we don’t have to beat around the bush – that’s what the songs are made for.
You can hear the beehive humming in the background from afar. Here we work diligently on the implementation of the songs on the big stage, on outfits, signals and signs, stories and rumors. Work is underway on POP. There’s nothing wrong with that. It can help you endure everything that is actually almost unbearable at the moment. Worldwide. That’s the good thing about it. This music can be a bridge because it works EVERYWHERE. You used to have to endure Coldplay, but now we have Harry Styles. Not everything has gotten worse.
