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Harry Styles, cover star of our current issue, is a real Berliner, of course. When he’s not strolling through Berlin-Mitte or completing a half marathon, he also records songs in the German capital – like songs from his current album “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.”
However, the British superstar was not only in the Hansastudios in Kreuzberg, but also in the Funkhaus Berlin near Rummelsburger Bucht. He recorded a few additional live sessions there, as was announced on Tuesday.
“Harry live from Funkhaus” is the 13-minute recording, of which there is now a video. Atmospheric Berlin winter images (yellow subways on the Oberbaum Bridge, snow on the Landwehr Canal) introduce the session.
Harry Styles celebrates chart success
Harry Styles makes short work of it and dances his way straight to the top. His new album “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – making it his fourth solo album to top the charts.
The album opened with 430,000 units sold and dethroned Bruno Mars’ “The Romantic” from the throne. A few days after the release on March 6th, Styles’ initial projections had already predicted 445,000 units. The success is hardly a surprise: The lead single “Aperture” also debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the beginning of the year.
For “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” Styles once again teamed up with his trusted collaborator Kid Harpoon and delivered a restrained, dance-focused experimental work that consciously blurs genre boundaries. The album was the highly anticipated follow-up to 2022’s commercial smash “Harry’s House,” which marked Styles’ strongest U.S. debut to date with 521,500 units sold. “Harry’s House” also produced the ubiquitous hit “As It Was,” which stayed at the top of the Hot 100 for a full 15 weeks.
Four years off, back stronger
“I turned 30 and I just wanted to stop and kind of take stock,” Styles told Zane Lowe about the four years since his last album. Time has obviously been good for the musician. “I felt like I was coming back as a stronger version of myself,” he added.
Harry Styles spends most of his wonderful new album on the dance floor. “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally” is his first new music in four years – since he took the pop game by storm with “Harry’s House” and then simply left it behind. But the most powerful moment is the quietest. “Coming Up Roses” is the emotional heart of the album, one of the few ballads, the only song he wrote entirely alone. It’s his most direct romantic approach to a classic pop love song. But it’s the kind of romantic invitation that begins: “Tell me your fears.” It’s really about doubt and vulnerability – and that’s exactly why it hits so precisely where Harry is currently standing.
