{"id":333536,"date":"2026-03-07T09:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T09:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333536\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T09:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T09:17:08","slug":"harry-styles-kiss-all-the-time-disco-occasionally-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333536\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Styles’ Kiss All the Time, Disco Occasionally: Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s been four years since we heard from Harry Styles<\/a>. When he dropped Harry\u2019s House<\/a> in 2022, the megastar leveled up with the ubiquitous pop-rock gold of chart-topper<\/a> \u201cAs It Was,\u201d won his first Album of the Year Grammy<\/a>, and helmed an impressive<\/a> two-year live run with the Love On Tour.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter so many highs, Styles is finally back with Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally<\/a>, and eclectic project that goes heavy on the disco ball introspection. From the way Styles draws inspiration across decades to his honest lyrics, here are all the takeaways from the star\u2019s fourth album.<\/p>\n

\t\tHe\u2019s Been Spending Loads of Time at the Club\t<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps you\u2019ve heard \u2014 Styles has been spending a lot of his downtime hanging out in clubs, mostly the techno and electronic scene in Berlin. He goes anonymous, just another sweaty body in the darkness of the dance floor, where we are all fam. Hence the album\u2019s recurrent vibe of dirty electro-sleaze, with \u201cAperture,\u201d \u201cReady Steady Go,\u201d and \u201cDance No More,\u201d featuring the party chant, \u201cGet your feet wet! Respect your mother!\u201d Club sounds are all over the music; he\u2019s cited Floating Points and Jamie XX.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you\u2019re out at night, it\u2019s such a community, but you\u2019re also watching people have such individual experiences,\u201d Styles told the legendary Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. \u201cI wanted to recreate [what] I had on the dance floor, being lost in the instrumentation and the musicality.\u201d Also, you have to applaud how \u201cDance No More\u201d stresses the importance of keeping hydrated in the club, where \u201cIt\u2019s feeling like the music is heaven sent \/ And there\u2019s no difference in between the tears and the sweat.\u201d \u2014Rob Sheffield<\/p>\n

\t\tIt\u2019s His Sound of Silver Moment\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile promoting Kiss All the Time, Styles said<\/a> he\u2019s been listening to a lot of LCD Soundsystem, catching recent shows in Madrid and London that influenced his new album. \u201cIt was so joyous watching them be immersed in it,\u201d he said of James Murphy & Co. \u201cThe inspiration from watching and realizing, \u2018That\u2019s how I want to feel when I\u2019m on stage,\u2019 and it matched the music I was making.\u201d He\u2019s not wrong. Styles dances himself clean a lot here (or, as he puts it, \u201csqueaky clean fantasy\u201d), particularly on the glitter ball smash \u201cAre You Listening Yet?\u201d and the shimmery synths of \u201cSeason 2 Weight Loss.\u201d He dips his toes into the 2010s without overdoing it \u2014 see his expert track sequencing, and how he puts the gentle stunner \u201cComing Up Roses\u201d in between \u201cSeason 2 Weight Loss\u201d and \u201cPop.\u201d It\u2019s in his Sound of Silver era, and we\u2019re here for it. \u2014Angie Martoccio<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\t\u201cComing Up Roses\u201d Is a Massive Heartbreaker Ballad\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJust for tonight, let\u2019s go hangover chasing,\u201d Styles purrs, in the album\u2019s one big romantic ballad, the only song he wrote totally solo. It sounds like a seductive invitation, but there\u2019s strings attached: fear, doubt, pain, awkward confessions of past damage. \u201cI\u2019ll talk your ear off about why it\u2019s safe,\u201d our boy sings, \u201cas I fumble my words and fall flat on my face through the truth.\u201d It\u2019s a heart-rippingly intimate tune, just piano and orchestra, with pizzicato strings that sound like his heart is pounding. In other words, it\u2019s a Fine Line-worthy ballad. (For people who love Styles because they love to hear him siiiiing, Fine Line\u2019s still the album to beat.) It\u2019s one of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful tunes he\u2019s ever done \u2014 especially the final minute, when he leaves the lyrics behind and just sings along with the orchestra wordlessly, not needing any words at all to break your heart. No disco in this song, maybe not many kisses, but it\u2019s the album\u2019s most brutal soul-punch. \u2014 R.S.<\/p>\n

\t\tParsley, Sage, Rosemary All the Thyme, Simon & Garfunkel Occasionally\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Kiss All the Time, Styles turns his lonely eyes to Simon & Garfunkel quite a lot (\u201cOne time is all right, two times is one too many,\u201d he sings, but we beg to differ). He references \u201cKeep the Customer Satisfied\u201d on \u201cDance No More,\u201d and honors Paul Simon\u2019s \u201cYou Can Call Me Al\u201d by commanding Kid Harpoon to solo \u2014 just like Simon did for bassist Bakithi Kumalo. \u201cCarla\u2019s Song\u201d is named after \u201cKathy\u2019s Song,\u201d Simon\u2019s heartbreaking ballad to his English girlfriend, and it opens with a tribute to \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water.\u201d In an interview with Zane Lowe<\/a>, Styles said he introduced his friend Carla to the 1970 classic, and watched her experience it for the first time. \u201cWatching her listen to it, having never heard that song, felt like I was watching someone see in technicolor or discover magic,\u201d he said. Consider this our official plea for this English muffin to cover \u201cPunky\u2019s Dilemma\u201d next. \u2014A.M.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\t\tHe Gets Real About Boy Band Trauma\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIf you\u2019re a One Direction fan, \u201cPaint My Numbers\u201d just might break your heart. The acoustic number marks the first time Styles has written about his boy band past with such a devastating vulnerability. \u201cOh what a gift it is to be noticed \/ But it\u2019s nothing to do with me,\u201d he admits, trading his typical tenor for a whisper. When Styles evokes the image of \u201ckids with water guns, watch them run,\u201d it\u2019s enough to make anyone who remembers videos of 1D onstage let out a tear or two. Meanwhile, on the propulsive \u201cPop,\u201d Styles shatters the \u201csqueaky clean fantasy\u201d of his teen pop past and leans into his fantasies, be it misbehaving or not. \u2014Maya Georgi<\/p>\n

\t\tGoodbye Seventies, Hello Eighties\t<\/p>\n

\n\tRemember just a few years ago, when Styles made his name as a sensitive singer-songwriter in Laurel Canyon? The days when he wanted to be Joni so bad, he not only got a dulcimer, he got it built by the same luthier who made Joni\u2019s? Well, he\u2019s put that era on pause here. The vibe on Kissco is \u201cWhat IS a dulcimer? Who is this Stevie Nicks person you speak of?\u201d He goes hardcore into the Eighties, with loads of old-school synth gadgets. There\u2019s so much Depeche Mode on this album (both Eighties AND Nineties DM \u2014 check that Speak and Spell synth on \u201cSeason 2 Weight Loss\u201d along with New Order, Prince, the Jonzun Crew, Yaz, and Mantronix. Talking Heads are such a huge inspiration, it sounds like he made a point of watching Stop Making Sense on VHS tape. (Especially \u201cDance No More,\u201d where the low-end synth revs like the late great Bernie Worrell over the Chic-style bass.) But he weaves all the Eighties sonics into something fresh and original. \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n

\t\tHe Manages to Tap a Choir \u2014 And an Orchestra\t<\/p>\n

\n\tStyles follows the lead of other stars, like Rosal\u00eda, by incorporating live instrumentation into a dance-inflected LP. There must be something in the lustful Berghain air that makes you crave symphonic drama \u2014 it\u2019s\u00a0almost like the two musicians went to the Berlin mainstay and left with similar inspirations. On lead single \u201cAperture,\u201d he employs a choir to flesh out the idea that we belong together, while the lovely \u201cComing Up Roses\u201d swells with the waltzy strings of a 39-piece orchestra.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Man Loves Radiohead\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Lowe interview<\/a>, Styles mentioned that he saw Radiohead in Berlin late last year, during their momentous comeback tour<\/a> \u2014 and it had a profound effect on him (same, dude). He takes his fandom a step further on Kiss All the Time, recruiting jazz drummer Tom Skinner, who plays in Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood\u2019s side project the Smile.<\/a> Skinner plays on six songs here, plus backing vocals for \u201cDance No More.\u201d (In another great move, Styles also tapped Wolf Alice\u2019s Ellie Rowsell to sing on several tracks). It\u2019s proof that Styles is a true music geek, who probably has a lot to say about In Rainbows Disk 2. \u2014A.M.<\/p>\n

\t\tHe Keeps It in the Family\t<\/p>\n

\n\tHarry, you\u2019re no good alone. After the massive success of Fine Line, Styles had his pick of musical collaborators \u2014 no doors were closed to pop\u2019s It Boy. But he chose to keep working with the same trusted core of longtime collaborators who\u2019ve been with him every step of the way, like Tyler Johnson and his loyal wingman Kid Harpoon, who executive-produced for the first time. (But who probably still calls him \u201cGary.\u201d) No features, no guests; he keeps tight with the friends who speak his musical language. By now it\u2019s like the Janet Jackson\/Jam & Lewis partnership, a long-running creative bond that can\u2019t be replicated. The album has a dedication: \u201cFor those who helped me make this. For those who inspire me to make anything. For those who helped me to know when to say NO, when to say YES. For all my friends to dance to.\u201d \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n

\t\tHe Feels Your Pain\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019ve been a little over-honest lately,\u201d Styles tells himself in the poignant and soaring \u201cThe Waiting Game.\u201d The man isn\u2019t kidding. He goes deep into 2020s angst all over the album, dissecting the madness of modern life. He runs down the symptoms in the witty \u201cAre You Listening Yet?\u201d: \u201cGod knows your life is on the brink \/ And your therapist\u2019s well fed.\u201d Other details include forgetting your mantra, ignoring what your therapist advises, and escaping into \u201cun-intimate sex.\u201d No wonder the characters on Kissco crave the sweet release of the club \u2014 the daylight world is driving them crazy. But Styles offers his own therapeutic advice: \u201cIf you join a movement, make sure there\u2019s dancing.\u201d \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n

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