{"id":333712,"date":"2026-03-07T11:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333712\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T11:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:41:10","slug":"harry-styles-lets-the-music-and-the-joy-take-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333712\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Styles lets the music \u2014 and the joy \u2014 take over"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Styles<\/a>\u2019 new LP feels like an event. Coming on the heels of the Grammy Award-winning \u201cHarry\u2019s House,\u201d \u201cKiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally\u201d is an experimental tour-de-force, a pop smorgasbord that is part homage, part electronica and part bacchanalia. But no matter how you slice it up, it\u2019s all fun.<\/p>\n

Listeners who relished the smooth sensuality of \u201cHarry\u2019s House\u201d would be well-advised to buckle up. \u201cKiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally\u201d is a wild, unpredictable ride, chock-full of sonic sound and fury. Co-produced by Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, the album was made for the earbud era. A veritable feast for the ears that shimmers with sound \u2014 a stray guitar flourish here, a pulsing synthesizer there.<\/p>\n

Several years in the making, \u201cKiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally\u201d found Styles living and working in Berlin \u2014 a career move that has been likened to the recording of David Bowie<\/a>\u2019s Berlin Trilogy: \u201cLow,\u201d \u201cHeroes\u201d and \u201cLodger.\u201d And the comparison to Bowie\u2019s West German sojourn is apt: working with his producers, Styles has clearly immersed himself in the avant-garde, taking chances, and embracing idiosyncrasy.<\/p>\n

But by his own admission, Styles attributes the vivid sonic textures of his latest album to the \u201cjoyous\u201d influence of LCD Soundsystem<\/a>. And that sense of joy and wonder radiates with eroticism and humor at nearly every turn, from the pulsing synthesizer and muted vocals of \u201cAperture<\/a>,\u201d the LP\u2019s lead, chart-topping single, to \u201cComing Up Roses,\u201d an orchestral ballad that unleashes a fusillade of strings into the proceedings.<\/p>\n

Not to be outdone by the album\u2019s soaring musical ambience, Styles\u2019 lyrics never disappoint, blending his penchant for witticism with pop-culture philosophy. With \u201cSeason 2 Weight Loss,\u201d he punctures the ego-driven obsessions of our age, reminding us not to take ourselves too seriously, while simultaneously living in a world in which a casual remark on social media can ignite a firestorm. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of sad,\u201d he sings, \u201cbut there\u2019s something I know \/ Too many things for you to analyze.\u201d The remedy, he points out, is right there in front of us: \u201cLet light come in once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Although it may seem na\u00efve, on the surface, to stoop to such mundanity \u2014 a variation on our era\u2019s \u201cgo outside and touch grass\u201d naturalism \u2014 Styles may be genuinely onto something. With songs like \u201cPaint by Numbers,\u201d he pauses the album\u2019s disco thrum to enjoy the simple pleasures of, well, living. Working his acoustic guitar with a French horn accompaniment \u2014 French horns! \u2014 he dares us to balance our relentless socioeconomic drive with our deep need to hang out, to while away the hours. \u201cIt\u2019s a lifetime of learnin\u2019 to paint by numbers,\u201d he sings, \u201cAnd watchin\u2019 the colors run.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some listeners, \u201cKiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally\u201d may seem like an unwelcome shift away from the tried-and-true pop sensibilities of \u201cHarry\u2019s House.\u201d But rest assured that Styles\u2019 heartwarming sense of wit and whimsy are fully in evidence. In \u201cAre You Listening Yet?\u201d he advises us, no matter what, to never stray too far away from the joy-inducing possibilities of music \u2014 whether it be LCD Soundsystem or, say, Harry Styles. \u201cIf you must join a movement,\u201d he advises, tongue-in-cheek, \u201cmake sure there\u2019s dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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about pop music<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Styles\u2019 new LP feels like an event. Coming on the heels of the Grammy Award-winning \u201cHarry\u2019s House,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-333712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}