Every Single Album - 'Harry Styles' | Every Single Album: Harry Styles

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

After making 'Made in the A.M.,' One Direction announced they were going on indefinite hiatus, which means it's time to dive into the boys' solo careers. First up is Harry Styles and his eponymous first album. Nora and Nathan talk about the heavy 1970s and '80s influences on this album, his relationship with people like Stevie Nicks and how that is shaping him as an artist, and how the album having only 10 songs affects it. Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Sean Fennessey. We've got something special cooking on the Prestige TV podcast. I'll be recapping one of my favorite shows, HBO's Barry, every Sunday night with the writer-director star of the show, The Great Bill Hater. We'll talk about the show's wild twists and turns, its special brand of dark comedy, and how it all came together. So on Sunday nights, immediately after a new episode airs, you can hear Bill and I break it all down on the Prestige TV pod. Subscribe on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and welcome to every single album. Harry Styles, right? Harry Styles, the One Direction diaspora has begun. Nathan Hubbard? What are we calling this? It's a big hairy day. He's about to headline Coachella. We're recording on the Friday before the first Coachella. I mean, this is a big hairy day.

Big hair. Every day is a big hairy day. We've got our wide-legged pants and our feather boas and we're ready to go. In this moment, he's not particularly hairy, though, because he's cut his hair. hasn't he? Yeah, it's, again, you know a lot when someone makes a big hair decision. It's like he got bangs. Nor is on to you, Harry. I just know that there's a lot, a lot going on, a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings that go into a major hair decision.

Like, our guy, Harold. I like, I know that in the UK, Harry is not short for Harold, but I love to call him Harold because James Gordon sometimes calls him Harold. and I find it just like immensely charming. Harold, yeah. How are you feeling about all this? I'm actually fine. Okay.

Do you think there were squirrels in his hair when he cut it? I think that there's like a small... Something lived in there. Small group of very charming like forest mice that all have just a wonderful, peaceful, sweet residence situation. Not anymore. Harry's head, yeah.

It's gone. It is gone. All right. So we are going to talk today about Harry Stiles's debut solo album called Harry Styles, released in May of 2017, fresh off the haircut. Squirrels have been banished. And it's funny. There's so much that we can talk about with Harry that to me feels almost like just cosmic destiny of stardom because he's just such an incredible artist, but also just such an incredible

public figure, such an incredible sort of presenter of no pun intended style and art. And he gives incredible quotes and he wears incredible clothes. And there's a lot to Harry that just feels like, yes, this was a person destined for these huge big things and for stardom, both as a musician, but also just as a guy. Yeah. But I would posit that in May 2017, that's a little bit more of a precarious thing than it seems like it would have been in hindsight just because it's hard to go solo. Going solo is this sort of treacherous thing, particularly for people who leave the sometimes difficult but also sometimes incubating confines of a very successful band. Wait, are you talking about Tom Brady again? No, absolutely not.

But I guess Cosmic Destiny. No, no. Okay. Spent too much of my life talking about Tom Brady. That is for sure. It's true, though. I mean, it's hard to get out. That said, there is usually one person who makes it out.

And if we were going to bet when this thing starts, you'd probably put your money down on Harry. I mean, Nick Lachet, if you can say that he made it. Nick Lachet made it out of 98 degrees. Obviously, it was Timberlake out of InSink. Nick Carter sort of made it out of the Backstreet Boys. Nobody really made it out of new kids on the block except Donnie Wahlberg's brother.

So maybe there was a trampoline effect. I mean, Victoria Beckham made it out of Spockers. Ice Girls, right? What is Victoria Beckham famous for? Victoria Beckham is famous for not smiling ever. Did anybody make it out a little mix or Danity Cain? Not really. So many Danity Cain references on this show.

Totally. How did this happen? Beyonce makes it out of Destiny's Child. Right. Like Michael Jackson made it out of the Jackson Five. Janet made it out of the Jackson Five. she wasn't even in the band. Janet gets the,

gets the, the Marky Mark Wahlberg trampoline effect. Well, then it's hard. Then the Timberlake incident is kind of, or that's maybe unfair to Justin Timberlake, but the Super Bowl incident

is kind of like post group member on kind of post group member crime. Yeah, it is. And it was crime. I mean, what's going to be interesting

is whether anybody can make it out of the BTS crew. And again, as we have alluded to, the entire structure of that band is very different. The Hib machine handles their business very differently. But you could still see, I mean, the V. Olivia Rodrigo Grammy moment was for real. Yeah. So you could see it coming here.

but it's hard. And to your point that sometimes nobody makes it out and it wasn't altogether clear how he was going to put this out. I mean, if we look at the albums that came out, this is like whatever, the ninth best-selling album of 2017, everything else was your buddy Ed Sheeran

was number one with Divide. I'm in love with the shape of you. We're pushing pull like a magnet do. Your other buddy Taylor Swift's reputation Oh, look what you made me do Look what you made me do Pink's beautiful trauma Rag and Bone Man's human

I'm only human After all don't put your blame on me Oh my gosh Can you believe it? Which by the way outsold Sam Smith I went too good at goodbye outsold U2 songs of experience, outsold Kendrick Lamar's damn,

outsold Eminem's revival, Harry was ninth, and Bruno Mars's 24K Magic was 10th. So that said, in hindsight, this album kind of fit and snuggled nicely in that top 10 in this spot of what, at least for me, was a much more stripped-down chill album

than I might have expected coming out of the One Direction years. And it has its own spot in that list of albums that were selling well, which is kind of the same move that One Direction made in 2012 when they started putting out these guitar rock albums that kind of weren't being done by anybody else. Yeah. Some of it is a real, some of it is a real zig in the other direction. and some of it is like straight out of the One Direction playbook, right? Because even in the ways where it's very different from what Harry was doing as a member of the band,

in that it is much more stripped, it sounds, you know, so many of these songs, it sounds like you're hearing them live. Yeah. It's less poppy. It's less polished. At the same time, all of that is taking from these classic rock influences that more and more as the guys made their own imprint on the music that they were making as part of One Direction, was pushing one direction towards that stuff.

And doing it in the way that Harry did where there's, it's more acoustic, it's more stripped down. It's a little bit more like confessional first person. Some of that is inevitable, right? You go from having to put five perspectives or just one very generalized perspective into songs to one person's lived experiences, I think you are pretty much automatically going to get more authentic storytelling of somebody's life, somebody's feelings, somebody's processing of emotions and experiences. But it's just funny to me how like one of the things you see

when artists who have been in successful bands go solo. And this is something that even Harry's talked about is like there's this, often this push. to say, well, that wasn't the real me. And I'm going to do this thing that's so much more sort of real and down to earth. And he has some of that sound. He goes in that direction to a degree in the sound that he uses. At the same time, he himself says up and down, like, no, that was me. That was an authentic experience that I had and enjoyed and was putting myself into.

And you can see how it's sort of a continuation. of the rockier stuff that they were doing more and more of as the albums went on. The other piece of that is you said, okay, usually there's one guy who makes it out of the band. And Harry had from the beginning been kind of tapped as that guy or assumed to be that guy. Because I would say at least early on, he's just so darn charismatic.

Yeah. But by the time this comes out, Zane has made a real successful musical statement as someone who has something very different to offer than what was being offered through One Direction. Zane has taken the playbook of that wasn't the real me, hashtag real music. This is the real me. And the album's gone to number one. Right. And the album's really good. The album is a successful player in contemporary pop.

in that moment. We're going to talk about it, people. Don't worry. Okay. On another pod, yes. So you can kind of go down the checklist of like how to leave a boy band 101. And Harry does a lot of it, right? There's much more explicit sex, drugs and rock and roll here than there ever was,

regardless of some of the rowdiness of certain one direction songs. That's definitely core to that playbook. at the same time he is playing One Direction songs on tour he talks about his experiences in the band super super fondly Yes

And it all adds up to I would argue this pretty deft move to maintain the fan relationships that he already had but also establish himself as an individual and as a solo artist

and carry on the identity that he already had but move on it in ways that were true to him, but also set him apart from what he'd been up to. I think there was a lot of the Justin Timberlake playbook in what they did, in that they didn't reject the past. They were very comfortable going out,

playing some of those old songs, especially early on when, you know, as he would say on stage, I only have 10 songs, so we're going to play some old stuff too. And creating like a really safe on-ramp from, the old career to the new one. And I think to a certain extent, he leaned into some of those influences, to your point, that had percolated through

some of the One Direction albums. But he really even turns back the clock a little bit more on this album, doesn't he? We got used to hearing a lot of 80s rock on the One Direction stuff. Harry worships at the altar of the 60s and 70s. Yeah. And so many of the choices that he makes on this album

and in his fashion sense and in the things that and even the people that he associates himself with seem to be rooted in his fandom of 60s and 70s, singer-songwriter, and rock. And that runs through, I mean, he does this Jamaica retreat, right? He gets paired up with Jeff Basker, who's a produced, superstar producer.

There are still some little vestiges of Julian Bonetta and John Ryan on this album. But it's Jeff Basker and team who he pairs with to start doing all this writing. Jeff Basker done Jay-Z's run this town and Kanye's All the Lights and Funs, Fons, we are young, and Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk. Just watch! So this guy's got a very established track record of hit making. Jeff Basker, by the way. Talk about mice living in your hair.

Yeah. They probably bonded over that. Yeah, they're really a rodent sanctuary between the two of them at their peak. If those guys don't shower for five days, you've got to start setting traps. But they go off to Jamaica. And Apple follows them there,

I guess, to sort of document the making of this album. I kind of wanted to see if I could write something that people liked without knowing everything about me but Harry really goes on like a yoga retreat this is his first vacation in five years

since he left the bakery and he's got some downtime and he uses it to woodshed with these guys and come up with this album that to your point I think just did the right job of not getting

too far away it's a rock album but boy is it different and uh he managed to make that leap musically in the same way, you know, that he was able to use his words to keep the connection with the fan base and not sort of reject out of hand what he'd done in one direction.

Yeah, well, so he, and he does take a little bit of a vacation. He takes some time off for the first time since the bakery. And then they go to Jamaica. And by the time this album comes out and he goes on tour, Like, he gets back on an absolute role. A heater. By 2018, he is the face of Gucci. He's Ben and Dunkirk.

He's writing more of his own songs, but he's also continuing to write songs for others. Was he good in Dunkirk, in your opinion? Oh, yeah. Have you noticed he hasn't said a word? His eye has. You don't speak English. If he does this with an accent,

thick and his sow crowd source. better than Joe Alwyn as an actor? Joe Alwyn is a working actor? I don't know. Who knows? No one knows. He's an actor? Taylor Swift's kept man is he's in things. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone.

We love Joe. It's just the lightly bullying Joe Alwin is my favorite pastime. So can't give it up. Sorry. Yeah. But no, I think he's good in Dunkirk. And I think he's good. I like Alfie's song, which is a bleachers song that he and Jack Antonoff wrote together for the movie Love Simon.

So he goes and takes a break. And then he takes this opportunity to do what he never got the chance to do as part of One Direction, which was just focused on one thing at one time because they were always making the albums while they were on tour. It was always, okay, we'll go do one song at a time. we can just get some studio time on this date in between this show and this show, and let's just get little snippets here and there. Instead, he decides, we're going to Jamaica.

We're not going to see anybody but each other, and we're just going to go to songwriting camp, essentially. Yeah. And all of that, I think, as we talk about sort of which moves Harry makes are in the lineage of one direction. and which sort of separate him from his past, that choice, I think, was the direct result of, okay, we never got a chance to work like this. We never got a chance to just woodshed together.

And that would be a really, really exciting and valuable experience, which it seems like he ended up just absolutely loving. And this album is sort of the product of that. Yeah. He made a couple of choices about the business side of this album, that unsurprisingly are deeply connected to the music that came out of it.

The first is he left Modest Management. Still has a good relationship with them, but left. Nile stays with Modest. But Harry goes on to his friend Jeffrey Azoff at full stop management. Jeffrey Azoff is the son of Irving Azoff,

who is a legend in the music business. He really came up managing the Eagles. he also managed Fleetwood Mac and is very much in Camp Stevie and Harry's obsession with Fleetwood Mac is very clear Irving managed many many of his heroes Jeffrey is his son

Jeffrey's a wonderful guy it really starts as a friendship but it's it's Jeffrey who starts to guide this career this is a different artist than really Irving or Jeffrey had ever worked with before him this is an actor this is a brand, this is a musician,

this is a fashion icon. For a very brief period of time, this is a TV producer for a shitty CBS show called Happy Together. You know what it's like. You've just settled down in front of the telly. When a world-famous pop star bloke turns up on your doorstep.

Nice couple of produce. Sorry to barge it on you, but pepper out to you up. Is it all possible that I crash here till it all dies down? What could possibly go wrong? But that all being fueled by the band that was made by the internet actually requires a new kind of management. And there's this interesting evolution from what Irving was and still is amazing at, which is being just a

eternal hardcore defender of his acts. Don Henley said about Irving Azoff, like he may be the devil, but he's our devil. To Jeffrey, who sort of was the next generation thinking about what it's going to require to manage an artist like this going forward, who can't just make music who's going to be creating through the visual medium, creating through products, creating through all of these other avenues and sort of brand extensions off the music. So there is that business decision that he makes that clearly is part of worshiping at the altar of Stevie Nix and Fleetwood Mac. And then they record this thing at the village in Los Angeles, which is this old Masonic

temple in Santa Monica, not far from where I live. I've been to that studio a million times. It is one of the coolest places you'll ever go. And guess what? Fleetwood Mac has a studio there. They recorded Tusk in that place. And each of them had their own separated room so that they wouldn't fight

and couldn't throw things at each other. And Stevie has the big vocal booth. There are all these catacombs everywhere. It's almost like, I don't know, the magic castle for music or something in L.A. It's a total, it just has. an energy that's incredible, and it's not surprising that he chose to record in that place at that space, because that was the energy and the influence that was flowing through him, that to your

point, wasn't too far afield. The apple had not fallen too far from the tree of what they were doing with one direction, but this music was more rooted in some stuff that came even earlier. One of my favorite things about Harry Styles is that he's just such a fan of stuff. Yeah. Like, he loves Fleetwood Mac so much. And he has a lot of opportunities that most people who also love Fleetwood Mac just wouldn't have, right? Because they don't need to go into a recording studio and make an album. Right.

And I really have always appreciated about him that he just has the energy and the wherewithal and the enduring excitement to be like, holy crap, I can go do this. So I'm going to do it in the place that my heroes did it. And I'm so excited about it. And I just think that's very charming. Yeah. You mentioned Jeffrey Azov, who was very nervous when a helicopter pulled Harry Stiles 1,500 feet up in the air to film the Sign of the Times music video, which I think is the biggest hit on this album. What say you, Nathan? I don't think there's any doubt.

It streamed twice as much as anything else. It was ubiquitous as it came out for a while. It is also Bowie's space oddity. There is also lots of Bowie in his fashion that gets injected here. It has, look, it was released on the 30th anniversary of Prince's sign of the Times, from which it seems to borrow certainly words. But it's not a Prince song by any stretch of the imagination. It does have that sort of lingering piano at the end that is very reminiscent of Purple Rain.

that outro feels super purple rainish to me. That they then use again. There you go. And only Angel. There you go. It debuts at number four. So it's a big song. But I,

this is just my own personal thing. I just remember hearing it and being completely confused. Because it didn't feel like a single to me. It felt like a long sort of drawn out, you know, an Odyssey more than a single. It just was an interesting choice for the first time you're going to put yourself out there.

Now, I guess in hindsight, Nora, it had the effect of saying, well, this is something different, but how did you react? Similarly, in that it is not poppy, right? This is not a radio play. But it's epic. That's the thing about this song

is that it's just epic. It's somehow a statement. And you might not even really be sure what the statement is but you're pretty convinced, I would argue, by the end of hearing this song, that this is an artist with a plan who has something that he really wants to say to you.

So you might not react to this song as, I want to stream this eight bazillion times in a row, even though it's done very, very well in streaming. Yeah. But you're really interested. You're really interested to hear what this person has to offer. And if that was the, impulse here.

I kind of get it. The other thing is, if this wasn't going to be the lead single, and I think part of why they did that is, sure, they announced it on the anniversary of the Prince album. They also wanted to be able to do it on S&L, I think.

And he had a really good vocal performance that night. And I think this song allowed him to kind of show off that way. So I wonder if that had something to do with it. Does it get you in here? feelings, though? It doesn't for me.

It doesn't get me in my like super emotional melancholy feelings, right? Like Harry has this backstory for this song where it's sort of this message of a mother has been told that her child is going to be born and is going to make it, but she's going to die.

And what world is she putting a child into and it's all very dramatic and very, like, again, epic. I don't feel the sadness of that, but I feel the bigness of it from this song, if that makes sense. Well, I have to say that for a while, I thought it might be a miss, because it just felt,

look, and the critical reception at the time still felt rooted in a lot of the critique of One Direction albums. And this gave some red meat to those critics who wanted to say, up, they're lifting Bowie, they're lifting space oddity. Again, here we go. Instead of doing it from the 80s,

they're doing it from the 70s. And yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he sings really well. And yeah, you know, he is a star, I guess. But, you know, at some point, we need to hear something real and new from them. But there were a few responses. Like, Rolling Stone calls him

the ultimate fusion of Mick Jagger's Yin. And Paul, McCartney's Yang to the point where encountering them at peak strength and the same star can get bewildering. And so there's some people who are on to what's happening here and jumping over the continual bits of lifting that seem to happen in some of the work that they make. It didn't bother you. The Bowie stuff

didn't bother you here. It's not that... I'm trying to be honest about exactly how I felt in the moment. I don't think that's true. I think that's true. I think that's also true of the stuff that we talk about with one direction. there was definitely a critical mass of stuff, both from one direction and then when Harry comes out, and this is the first thing that he has to offer, where you'd reached a threshold of, man, a lot of this stuff is referential at best to old stuff. Yeah. The thing that I found, I guess, more confusing than anything else, but a little bit validating of those choices was how much he did present

himself as kind of a student of the game. Right? Like, you knew how obsessed he was with those old rockers. You knew that he was taking a lot of Bowie influence, both in the music but also in fashion and in self-presentation. And the announcement on the anniversary of the Prince album doesn't feel like an accident at all. Right. He does a pretty good Mick Jagger on SNL.

Next up, we got rock and roll legend. Jagger. He's a lovely show. It's a bit of fun in it. He does a good big Jagger every night. He's on stage. Fair. Very fair.

I can't see his reps. It rolls through him. It didn't feel like he was trying to pull the wool over people's eyes in terms of what the references were. It didn't feel like he was trying to say, hey, here's my totally new thing that you've never heard before. And people were saying, oh, wait, actually, I feel like that's not true. We have heard this before.

Right. It seemed like he was saying, I am just obsessed with this stuff. And it is the thrill of a lifetime that I get to give it my own go. And that sometimes verged into territory that was a little bit weird because it was a lift. Yeah. But I think that's less straightforwardly, like, you're just poaching other people's stuff and trying to take the credit for it than it would have been. if it weren't so obvious how much

he did study and care and felt influenced and inspired by a lot of the stuff that he was taking from. Yeah, look, as a point of comparison, this song endures in ways that Timberlake's like I love you definitely does not. And, you know, listen, Timberlake has had a massive career and would be, you know, Harry still has some targets to hit there

if he wants to sort of exceed that career. But it was maybe a better choice. I just remember, like, I love you when it came out. You were like, what is, like, I think he's dancing on stage at the MTV Video Awards, and there's a huge boombox in the background, and you're just like, dude, this sounds like bastardized Michael Jackson, and it's just not very good and catchy. At least here, there's a grandiose nature of the song, in the same way, there's that sort of grandiose nature of the video.

So, you know, kudos to Jeffrey and to Harry and whoever else was helping. and make these decisions because it worked. How do you feel about the video? There's a little bit of messianic complex in every great star. That's how I feel about the video. So I think it's cool. I have to be honest,

anytime I see someone flying around like that in a music video, all I can think of is, where's your broomstick Harry Potter? Yeah. Like there's something about it that looks really dorky. And I know, like, it was supposed to be so cool.

And holy crap, if someone strapped me to a helicopter and pulled me 1,500 feet up in the air, I just wouldn't. But there's something about the way your body hangs when you're attached to a helicopter that it wouldn't do, gravity wouldn't work those bits if you weren't strapped to a helicopter and you were actually flying. So there is some, this ain't real that happens. Yeah. It's funny, though. I believe Harry Stiles could fly. I think if he really set his mind to it, he could do it. All right. Is this the best song on the album? No. Okay.

Can I, before I reveal, can I ask you one more question? Of course. If Sign of the Times hadn't been the lead single, do you think there... This just isn't an album that has a lot of quote-unquote lead singles on it. Like, what would you have gone with? Yeah, that's, I think, the right question to ask, because unless you're going to lead with a ballad, is it only Angel? Is it your favorite Kiwi? If you lead with women... Can you imagine if he'd led with Kiwi?

Would have been so funny. Yes. I mean, you only have 10 choices. So, like, if you lead with woman, you're definitely going to get shit for the Elton, John, Benny, and the Jets. Right. If you lead with Only Angel, you're going to get shit for it being a blend of Rolling Stone songs and the electric light orchestra don't bring me down. So you're a little trapped, I think, in what you can bring out here.

And that starts to, I think, probably help you understand why they pick this one. Yeah, I think it was. I think it was the right call. I also, maybe this is giving too much credit, but I think it was the right foot to get off on for someone who was, I think, relishing the opportunity to kind of play the long game. Yeah.

He already had celebrity. He already had fans, right? Like, if this wasn't going to work, he was at least determined to kind of do it on his own terms, do stuff that sounded like what he loves, what he's always loved, make the music that he wanted to make, make it in the way that he wanted to make, and see where that went. And I think this feels like the right choice if those are the stated goals. Yeah, and this album, again, is remarkably chill. And so using this song to sort of

take it down a notch is not a bad idea. It's way more chill than I think most people expected. So not coming out with a rager, which you're used to, the first one direction song is always a rager. It's a bop, it's a bouncer. And this one, I think, just threw people off. And that's probably why it got our attention. But what's the best song in this album? Also a very chill tune.

Sweet creature is my favorite song. Yes, it is. It's just the best. The vocal is just spectacular. Harry has this high range at this point, which is simultaneously so delicate, but also has this real rasp to it. It just knocks my socks clean off. And I think the melody is so lovely.

He's such a melodic writer. A lot of his songs, I think something that ties a lot of them together when they're especially successful, is just a real attention to how a melody is going to grab you. this one just blows me away. I could listen to this song every day for the rest of my life. Yeah, I think it is the best song on the album. I totally agree with you.

It's also the one that you can't like immediately put your finger on and say, this is the roots of that song. And it just strips back and shows his voice and all its glory. Is it about something?

I think it's about, is this a trick question? Do you know something that I don't? I'm asking you. I was going to say that I think, I think that this is about the warmth of Harry Styles. And I run out of all for you bring me home. And just the sunshine that radiates from somewhere within this person who has, it seems like, deep love for a lot of people and a lot of, I love him.

Listen to you. Wow. This isn't good. Sunshine that he did. We're half an hour into this podcast. Guess who's in the bag for Harry? Wow. No comment.

I thought it was Liam. Good Lord. I thought it was Nile. Unbelievable. They're just such wonderful young men. Radiation. Talk to me more about the sunshine and warmth that radiates. Why don't you talk to me more about our favorite song?

I think you're right. There's not much more to say. It's a beautiful ballad. It can be played. It's one of those songs that doesn't, for me, if I listen to a good song too often, my ear gets sore and I can't hear it anymore. Like I feel that way about a number of you two songs.

I don't feel that way about with or without you. Every breath you take never hurts my ears. Every breath you take. This song I can just keep listening to, and it doesn't, it just never hurts to hear it. I never sort of wear it out. It's definitely the best song on the album. I'm not sure that it's particularly close, actually. Do you have any other contenders?

Look, I really like a lot of the ballads. I mean, two ghosts is nice, but I think I'm too far up inside it. And we'll talk about that, I'm sure. I think Meet Me in the hallway is a great opening song. It is ramble on. Major Zeppelin guitar vibes with the higher bass notes coming at the end of the phrase. But I enjoy the song. I mean, there is not, when we get to what song are you cut,

like we're going to have a lot to talk about here. I think from the dining table is probably the one for me that it comes really close. Now, I have a massive bias, which is that I am a huge Jeff Buckley fan. We made an album and hired Jeff Buckley's drummer to play on it because I love him that much. And that song has serious Jeff Buckley vocal vibes.

Compare the vocal in the chorus and verse of dining table to the verse of lover, you should have come over. And you can hear of those silence is so worried. And you're not going to hungry for your love, but no way to feed it. And you can hear where it's coming from. It's different. But there are some beautiful similarities there. So I think I'm not so sure whether I'm just being drawn into, oh, maybe this is like a, Jeff Buckley back from the dead, like working his way through Harry Styles to give us another song. But I think that's the one for me. Is there anything for you that comes close?

Well, so I don't know that you and I have ever been in quite as lockstep on an album that we've talked about as it seems like we actually are on this one. Because it is very clearly sweet creature for me, but two ghosts and from the dining table are the other contenders. There's a clear step down. But two ghosts, it's just the melody and I think the lyrics are great. It really grabs me. It's one that I can listen to a lot without my ear getting tired at all. Tongue tired like never know. Telling those stories we already told.

Do you hear the Allman Brothers, Melissa? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And then from the diner. table. That one to me is the writing. You like the masturbation piece. Thank you, Nathan.

Kind of a big moment. woke up alone and played with myself for your moment. You know what? Yes. I say it with respect. I say it with respect as well. No, I like it too. Because how often did we feel like we listen to? to a whole One Direction album, absolutely love it, have so much fun,

get so much in terms of feeling and joy and excitement and just great, you could always tell what the vibe was, right? But there was very little clear detail that allowed us to get to know these guys in those songs. Yes. And a lot of the romance stuff was like high school gym, girls on one side,

guys on the other, horn, as we would say often, hornedoggery. There's something very like mature and adult about the sexuality in this song. And it's really, it just seems really honest. I believe every word, it seems incredibly true, it seems incredibly

lived and vulnerable in a way where it's just compelling to see someone at this point in their career, say, okay, I'm going to experiment with sharing with my audience the story of a moment and an experience that really affected me where I didn't feel so great.

And it works in a way where you feel like you're inside of that. And I think that's both super impressive and also kind of a watershed moment in his career. So I really love that song. I think just as a song, it's very good. But I also really, really appreciate it for its function in doing it. that. Enough said. So we're kind of in,

we are thinking very similarly here. I wonder if that will hold when we do have to shoot something into the atmosphere. Take it out back and send Grandpa with a gun. There's only 10 songs on this album. It's hard.

Grandpa go home. Yeah, Grandpa, maybe bury it, but we have to do it. That's part of the fun of the game. I mean, I want to hear from you. What are you going to take out? I think, well, now, listen. Do you have any guesses?

Well, I want you to clarify your comments from an earlier episode of every single album One Direction, in which you made some sort of compare and contrast between Nana. We're like Nana, nah, nah, nah, nah. Is it Nana? Na, nah, nah, nah. Three Noss. I put it all out of my head. And you said something about Kiwi.

I want to give you the floor to clarify. what you were actually trying to say, it may only be me who is confused, but it's our podcast, so I'm asking you to do it. You said, I'm trying to remember your exact words. I said,

but when you were talking about non-na-na-na, but you also said that it was like crotch-grabby or something. It's a crotch thruster. Crotch-thrusty. I guess it's better to be crotch-thrusty than crotch-grabby. That's a little invasive.

Kiwi shares that vibe, I allege. It also shares the fact that I think certain songs that are over the top can be great when they are live, as I believe Kiwi is a song that is amazing live and meant to be performed live. And that is sometimes limited in its efficacy if it is, say, being broadcast into my ears. by my headphones if I'm going to get a matcha. I don't know if I need the cocaine snorting noises

in the background and I'm having your baby screamed over and over when I'm going to get a matcha. It's a little too much. That is all that I am saying. Harry's accidental pregnancy song in the key of the black keys

isn't necessarily for you. I mean, this thing is in the... It's just like, it's just not for like a Tuesday at 11 o'clock, you know? Yeah, I get it. I mean, look, it's in the same key as Hallin for you by the Black Keys. It ends up being sonically more of a bit of a mashup of gold on the ceiling and Lonely Boy,

but this one feels like they just picked up the Black Keys album in Jamaica, had some things that you do when you're in Jamaica, and recorded this thing. Yeah, I don't think Harry has quite like gotten in. into mushrooms yet, but who's to say? I'm not saying it didn't happen down there. We don't know. We don't know. Who's to say? He's with some professionals.

What Jeff Basker has hiding between foot two and foot three of his hair. Yeah, for sure. Is this about anything, Kiwi? Oh, good God. No. It's about being a rock star. Okay. It's just a vibe. I mean... It's just a vibe. It's about cocaine. You don't think there's like an unknown child of styles somewhere. I don't.

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm really naive here. I'm just wondering if like Putin's got kids all over Western Europe at this point. Putin? That nobody acknowledges. What does that have to do with our Lord and Savior Harry Stiles? Well, you know, he's just a big figure who probably has the resources to hide the baby. That's all I'm saying.

Oh my goodness. All right. I'm like more mad at you than over the dick in the box. incident now. You're saying no. What else might you cut? So, the song that musically I can actually part with on this album is woman. Here's the problem. This song could basically be the Appleby's jingle, like repeated four times over and over again. Okay. And I would still want it to exist for its acknowledgement of how much Harry Styles loves romantic comedies.

Should we just search romantic comedies on Netflix and see what we find? Oh, it's the original Netflix and Chill, isn't it? The intro? Yeah, like, just the fact that in the intro, he talks about how much he loves to just hang out and watch a rom-com. Yeah, in quotes. It's very important and we can't get rid of it, even though, like, musically, it doesn't do a lot for me.

Well, it's Elton John's Benny and the Jets. Yeah, but not as fun. Okay. But Netflix and chilling is fun. And that's what he leads the entire song with. Well, that's what I'm saying. He's making the duck noises after every verse. That are actually just his voice with a little bit of treatment on it. But it sounds like a duck.

It just doesn't do it for you. That's fine. Yeah, it just doesn't do it for me. But, like, you know what? You know what did do it for me? What? Was when Harry quoted when Harry met Sally at the 2014-A. AMAs.

We're the worst time. Yeah. We're high maintenance, but we think we're low maintenance. Yeah. Love actually is his favorite movie. He has a nickname for Nicholas Sparks. You think he's into Valentine's Day the same way you are?

You love that movie. Totally. That's why he wanted to, you know, go out with Taylor. Wouldn't surprise me. So musically, that's the one that you shoot into space. Is there something, and you want to shoot Kiwi lyrically into space?

No, I don't want to do anything with Keywee. I just want to occasionally turn it off if it's a Tuesday morning. Yeah. I have... Kiwi stays. Kiwi has to stay. And if I had been at the show where he closed by playing it three times in a row because he didn't want the tour to end, I would be talking about it for the rest of my life.

I would think it was the coolest thing on planet Earth. I think that song is in some way is just this incredible artifact. It's just sometimes like, just too much. much cocaine. Yeah. Well, there's another song in this album that's about cocaine, potentially, which is Carolina. Gets into parties without invitations. And it's really about a fan named Towns, right?

But there's also some suggestion that it, too, is about cocaine. Do you think all that was hiding in Basker's hair? Like, what's going on? But this, this song, like... You shake him, there's just, like, white powder that... He just... It's like you think it's... Coats the floor.

You think it's a head and shoulders commercial, but no. This is a joke if Jeff Basker's lawyers are listening to this. Yeah, it's a drug mule. But Carolina has like Steelers' wheel stuck in the middle with you vibes for sure. I'm so scared and he cares I fall off my chair. I'll get down the stairs. And then it tries to give us a little of Beck's devil's haircut. And then, and then, speaking of poor man's pockets,

smiling eyes ripping out of the sockers. And then, speaking of cocaine, at the end, it gives us that Robin Thick, Blurred Lines, Good Girl part. This song, I enjoy, do you enjoy the song? I love it. I love the stockpot. I met her once and wrote a song about her. scream, yeah, I want to shout it up. Okay.

Where they're just like wailing on the stockpot from the kitchen and the place in Jamaica where they were all staying? It's great. The stockpot. I don't need any more cowbell. I need more stockpot. No. But by the way, you get a lot of cowbell in Only Angel. True.

I mean, you get all the cowbell in Only Angel. Guess what? I got a fever. and the only prescription is more cowbell. What it leaves for me, and I don't like to say this out loud, but I guess we're doing it. I think if I had to grandpa one song,

I'd grandpa ever since New York. Like, this is, I know. And it makes me sad too, because we think this is about his stepfather Robin Twist, who got a cancer diagnosis while Harry was in New York. And this,

it is like that eagleish, Eagles song on the last 1D album, what a feeling for me. Like, kind of crossed with filters, take a picture. It's not that I don't like the song. Let me be clear. It's just if I have to drop one

and still feel like the album flows, it's probably ever since New York. And it doesn't grab me. I don't go back and listen to ever since New York over and over again. I mean, I like that song a lot. I definitely don't want it to go anywhere, but I acknowledge that this is a difficult challenge.

Because first of all, this is just a short album. Yeah, we have no extended tracks. I think he already made the cuts. Yeah. Look, there are some extended tracks that don't make this album that we should talk about because he does play them on the tour. And I don't, well, you've referenced a few of them. Like, the song that he wrote for Ariana Grande,

just a little bit of your heart. It was great. Pretty great song. There's a song called Medicine that he ends up playing on this tour a lot and a song called Anna. Yeah, and those two songs actually just for when we're recording now,

those two songs came out the day that there were those Harry Styles leaks and some old One Direction songs. Are we allowed to listen to them? Well, I think people have heard them at least. I have different feelings on listening to a leaked version of the new Harry album versus old stuff that he already had an opportunity to choose how people heard what they heard and it's not stepping on his choices over

how he wants people to hear the new songs and how he wants the new album rollout to go. I think that's an opportunity to support an artist through being a little bit restrained and saying, you know what, if it would be meaningful to Harry for people to wait a month so that Harry's house can come out in the way that he wants to. I think people should do that. There is a degree to which it's stolen art. I do think slightly differently about years old songs that he's already had that chance with. Medicine is a cult favorite, right?

Well, right. And people already had a chance to, it's a little bit less like, and it's not that, look, money's probably coming out of somebody's pocket through that stuff being leaked one way or another, but it's also not to the same extent. And there's something about it that's just like very, very, cool for something that is kind of a cult favorite to, for people to get to experience in a new way. And I think it's fun to go back and hear those tracks. I think medicine and Anna are really good.

Yeah. The boys and the girls are in. I mess around with him and I'm okay with it. That sets some fire to parts of this fan base. Totally. Totally. And he still plays it. He just played at Coachella. It's a great song. I think I sort of get what. those songs didn't make the album because frankly, they're a little bit, they're a little one directiony. Fair enough. Those are two tracks where in the way that they're a little bit like,

rocky and upbeat and fun, feel in some ways connected to like a hairy song off Made in the A.m. So I wonder if that's why they didn't get included here. But I'm into both of those songs. I mean, there are great songs that could have been on this album and weren't, clearly. You mean like the

unstoppable version of Girl Crush? I was teeing you up for that yet. I know how you feel about that song. I want to drown myself and a bottle of her perfume. This is the best.

It's the best. It is, it just slays me. Only Harry could. pull this off. You, like, fell in love to Harry Styles to this song, right? Yeah, this is the one that got me.

It's really good. It's really, really good. He doesn't live sometimes. Yeah, but only rarely. Look, I want it to be on the album, but I sort of like that it's floating out there in the ether and you have to do a little bit of work to discover it.

It's one of those ones that is, like, definitely for the fans. So I understand why he didn't put these on the album and I think he made the right choice because it allowed him with a smaller set of songs to go out and play Stockholm Syndrome. Right. And what makes you beautiful? And if I could fly. And for the band to play, of course, Fleetwood Max the Chain.

But it's sort of, it was a very transitional set list in a lot of ways. And we got to see those old songs done in a slightly different way. he got to hammer around on the guitar a little bit. And he's a little bit behind Nile at this point in his mastery of the instrument. But he is in another league in terms of his mastery of his vocal instrument. And that's really what carries it forward. So, yeah, I'm with you. It's short and sweet.

This is a very digestible bit of content. And it's what makes the album, I think, really great. Well, so let's talk about some of the people who helped make it. Do you have a most important? collaborator for me. I think it is the cocaine mule Basker, but... Allegedly. Allegedly. He's not allegedly. Come on. No, no. I think it's Basker because I think there's a lot of writers on every song. So these were group efforts, and we see that through the course of the documentary. But this is a hard leap for somebody to make. And this is a guy who, if you're

you're going to knock one direction, you're going to say that even made in the AM had a lot of contrived shit on it, that lyrically, you and I created a category called swooniest lyric and shittiest lyric because it was pervasive. Those things were pervasive, and it wasn't easy to pick because we had a lot of things to choose from across the albums. In this case, he's taken this guy out lyrically of that environment altogether. I don't think there's a song on this album outside of maybe Kiwi and maybe woman that is sort of throwaway and not thoughtful.

So it feels very, very authentic. And he had a great guide in doing that, and I think it's Jeff Basker. If I have a runner up, it's Sarah Jones, his drummer. Woo! Because there is nothing... And the Sarah Jones hive. There is nothing more badass

than a female drummer. Lennie Kravitz did it, white stripes. There's tons, but like, it's part of the vibe of that band on stage is her behind the drum kit absolutely holding it down. And she does it. She does it on both of the tours. So I think she sort of helped. Listen, it's not easy to be a drummer for this stuff either

because you've got some huge rockers, you've got some more chill ballads, and you've got to sort of navigate the two. She's awesome. She crushes Kiwi. it's another reason for that. So she just absolutely owns. I like it.

I like it. And so, Baskard, I'm into it. I really kind of want to give this to the whole squad, which Basker definitely was the guiding force behind creating, right? Because he's the established guy. He's the one who's got this crazy career and sort of gets tapped to spearhead this effort. There are a lot of people writing.

these songs, but it's all kind of the same people. So Tyler Johnson, who's a collaborator of Baskers, actually also worked on Red as a guitar engineer with Taylor. Alex Saliban, who's another collaborator of Jeff Baskers. And then Ryan Nassie. Yeah. Well, so then Ryan Nassie, who's a composer and an engineer whose roommate, Mitch Roland, becomes Harry's guitar guy.

one super buddy, but also guitarist, who gets tapped to come in and play one day when a guitarist who was supposed to do a session with them bailed. Mitch is working at a pizza shop. Harry totally musically falls in love with him as a guitarist and this beautiful friendship and partnership is born. It felt like we kind of had each other to work out together. And that helped to have someone who had no kind of preconceived notions about. me or who I was or anything and he's a legend. That's the group that they write with Harry on every track except Carolina, all of those guys write on plus Kid Harpoon.

And then two ghosts is Harry, Tyler Johnson, John Ryan and Julian Bonetta, who we know so well. And then Sweet Creature is just Harry and Kid Harpoon, who ends up having a bigger influence. influence on some later stuff, but it's just on a couple things here. And then all of the tracks were produced by Jeff Basker, Alex Salibon, Tyler Johnson, except for Caroline and Sweet Creature, which Kid Harpoon also worked on. So for the most part, everybody's doing the same stuff and they're all just, they're all in Jamaica, hanging out spending every waking hour together away from the rest of their lives, just totally diving into this stuff.

And so that's why I say it's just sort of that squad because that was never what Harry got to do. And it seems like he really, really relished the experience of being able to do that. You can totally see it in the documentary, the sort of concert documentary and making of thing that they did because this little musical cocoon that they built together seemed super important to him. and did carry on.

Make a butterfly. Right. Wow. That was beautiful. Thank you for that, Nathan. I got you. What's P. Carey? Oh.

What is P. Carey? I mean... I have like nine of them. Yeah. This is the thing. There isn't anything for me that jumps out here. For me, it's that he worships Stevie Nix and Fleetwood Macs so much that he basically hires their manager and records in their studio.

But the Jamaica Getaway... Kand comes out and sings landslide. And leather and lace with Stevie Nix at the Trubador when he does this like super small secret concert.

And just absolutely flips out. Like if people haven't seen this, go look it up YouTube. He might be crying at one point and you can just see him. You watch him. He says it's the best night of his life. You can watch him sort of purse his lips in ways where he's just trying to keep his jaw off the floor. Like he cannot believe that this is happening. And it is so cool to watch someone who's in that position still be so emotional and awestruck.

and be a fan, that I think it really lets you into a little slice of his relationship with his fans, because you just know that he understands the feeling. I am losing my shit. I just think it's very cool. They also sound incredible. Nora Princeati, studying pursed lips, everybody. Wow. I would let that go.

No. Never. Is that your peak, Harry? It's not. I have a different one. Oh, I was going to say, wow, we have a lot of overlap if that's the case. All right, bring it on. Tina, she's gay.

She's gay. He's in San Jose on tour. And a fan close to the front has this sign that says, I'm going to come out to my parents because of you. Right. And Harry stops. He asks her her name. He asks if he can read the sign.

He asks her mom's name. her mom's name is Tina. It turns out she's in a hotel a few miles away from where the show is. And Harry, very funnily and lovingly, just yells, Tina, she's gay. And the entire place eventually starts chanting this. And it is one of the most magical, wonderful, special concert moments that I've ever seen video of heard of happening. It's such

the nexus of his support for the LGBTQ community the way that that's been such an important part of his career of One Directions career. And then also just the love for his fans and the connection that he has

with the people who go to his shows and the space that those shows are being such a just wonderful thing is totally P. Carey to me. It has so much to do with why he's not just an incredible performer, but an incredible celebrity, public figure, someone to root for, someone to sort of place your feelings and your hopes and dreams into. And it's just the coolest thing. And we're talking so

much about the ways in which he's a really throwbacky guy, but also the ways in which he's kind of avant-garde even. And A lot of the rockers that he idolizes and plucks so much from in terms of music, in terms of style, in terms of just loving them very much, a lot of that, a lot of that stuff, there was just never going to be a moment like that at those shows. Yeah. So he starts every show with feel free to be whoever you want tonight. Please feel free to be whoever it is in life. to be in this man

to see. And there's something I think really wonderful about like even in music one thing that I really respect that he does is he doesn't use like he has all these

sort of old references in the songs but he uses cutting edge equipment. There's really no like he might go get Joni's dulcimer and we'll talk about that later

but he's never using kind of like analog equipment because he just thinks we've really good machines now and they create stuff that sounds awesome, why would I in the pursuit of sort of like an authenticity grab

use stuff that isn't state of the art when I have the opportunity to do it? And I think there's a really impressive track record of knowing when to go back in time and when to absolutely not do that. And it's just one of my favorite Harry Styles moments of all time.

He's a very interesting blend of old and New Souls, isn't he? Totally. Speaking of which, are any of these songs about Taylor Swift? Fuck, yeah,

they are. We've been saving this category. You know they are. Well, there's a fairly clear allegory in two ghosts to style. I was hoping you were going to tell me

it was Kiwi that the Putin baby song is is about... Stop a bet. Okay. No more Putin baby for you. Let's talk about two ghosts. If you just strip all the words away, you'd go,

this is the almonds, Melissa. We said that already. But if you listen to the words, Nora, and you think about the time period in which this was written, he wrote it for Made in the A.M. So the chronology works in what we know to be from the relationship.

There are some hat tips to the song song style here, aren't there? Same lips, red, same eyes blue, same white shirt, couple more tattoos. Same lips red, same eyes blue, same white shirt, couple more tattoos. Pretty good. Pretty good. There's also that subtle reference to refrigerator light. Refrigerator light.

From all too well. I guess he does know what a refrigerator is. We'd wondered. It turns out. It's... Maybe Taylor taught him. Hard. It's hard to think this is not about Taylor Swift.

I mean, there is no chance that this isn't intended to make you think that it is about Taylor Swift, right? And that's the question. Is he that coy? I think he is. Yeah. Because Harry can be totally demure and act like he's completely uninterested in talking about this stuff. But he also knows when to be sort of cheeky about it. He's entirely capable of doing that.

I mean... Well, I say we're using the word cheeky. I think he, there's just, it's just so on the nose. Now, there's, there is the Larry contingent that thinks that that is an effort to mask the fact that this is actually a song about Louis, but the reference, I would say, is fairly transparent. He seems to give lots of winks and nods in the interviews about these. He seems very happy for you to believe.

Not just that it's hard to think it was, but he seems very happy for you to believe that this is about Taylor Swift. And he seems very happy for you to believe that, well, of course, this is about Taylor Swift, but, oh, Harry doesn't want to talk about it. Yeah. Are we sure that this is the only one? But this is the only one about Taylor?

Yeah. I mean, look, I hope so. We got a three months. It's time to move on, Harry. I think. And Harry has moved on, to be clear. He's got plenty of subject material. Yeah, he also, for what it's worth,

when he guest-hosted the Late Late Show, chose to eat codsperm instead of telling, Kendall Jenner, which songs were about her? Which songs on your last album were about me? So. Who wouldn't? I don't know. Probably some people.

Yeah. Fair enough. Probably some people who would wind up on the other side of... Do you not think sweet creatures about Kendall Jenner? We're still young. We don't know where we're going, but we know we belong. actually have never really read it through that lens. This is the first time I'm considering this.

Okay. I've heard that angle for Only Angel just because of the Victoria's Secret stuff. Yeah. There's clearly, you know, there's a woman in a bunch of these songs and meet me in the hallway, certainly an Only Angel. Certainly in the song, Woman. Right. That if you just use the timeline, she,

is a pretty good candidate. From the dining table, too. Comfortable sides are so overrated. Why won't you ever say what you want to say? Right. It never totally feels like, like those are the places where there's nothing quite so on the nose as there is in two ghosts.

Yeah, I agree. We're speculating. But I don't feel like. we're speculating on two ghosts. This one is right down the lane. This one is to Taylor Swift as style is to Harry Styles. Well, and she'd already done style, right? So I think there's something about it where he does care a lot about preserving this era of mystery. But people already knew. So it gave him kind of license to just go have fun with it. By the way, he also, he does it as Bob Dylan in the dock where they're kind of just fooling around there in Jamaica.

And he does a pretty solid Dylan. He does. Not even used to be. That makes no sense. This guy should be an actor someday. Ha. Maybe even inject himself into the Marvel universe. We'll see.

Did anything happen on March 25th? I mean, we know what happened with the other guys. Liam announces his Putin baby with Sherry. Not a Putin baby. It's not a Putin baby. No, his actual baby with Cheryl. Louis wishes his, you know, sends a tweet wishing his mother who passed away, happy birthday, which is all very sweet. So there's some real sweetness and wonderfulness coupled with some sadness that happens on this March 25th.

But you tell me. Well, a little teaser for Sign of the Times started kind of floating around the interwebs. Oh, it did? Yeah. And I believe Harry, because it gets announced on the 31st, which is the Prince anniversary, actually gets released, I believe, April 7th. But a few days before it was getting out there and then Harry pulls a Taylor, puts three white squares on his Instagram grid. Oh, boy.

So there's stuff going on. Okay, there are things happening. Nora, do we do who won the album when we do the solo things? Harry won the album. Harry won the album. The ballads win the album for me. The ballads really win the album. I understand the rockers are fun and they've got to be there to carry an arena show.

But for me, this album is about the ballads. And the maturation process of his songwriting that comes through in the ballads. It doesn't come through so much in the rockers because they're sort of built to be fun. you know, the rightful inheritors of the fun party songs of One Direction. It's the ballads where you're like, holy shit, this isn't just a voice, this is a songwriter. I'm with you. I got to say, I listen to Carolina quite a bit. And?

Well, just, that's an enduring. Okay. I agree with your top line point, but there are some enduring rockers from this album for me. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. So if I think about this, this album, one of the first things that I'm thinking about is the like, La la la la la la la la la la la la there Yeah fair enough

Do we have swoony lyrics on this? We have swoony lyrics We also just have some great lyrics Like this I really want to talk about Because it just is that Is that progression From the one direction stuff That was not necessarily

Like I'm not sort of offering this necessarily As a critique that it was all generalized. It just was automatically diluted because there were multiple of them. We were not hearing from Harry Styles. And I think one of the ways in which this album is incredibly successful

is how it allows us to hear from Harry Styles in a way that sounds very real, very believable, very true, very intimate and vulnerable to me. So I'm going to shout out to things that don't necessarily fit, that mold, but I still think are just great bars. And then I'm going to give you my real answer.

Because I don't want this podcast to end without, first of all, acknowledging that on Carolina, I met her once and wrote a song about her is just like such a flex. And I love it. I met her once and wrote a song about her. I want to scream. Yeah, I want to shout it out. And then also for everything that I have said about Kiwi, just being. absurd. Yes.

Holland Tunnel for a nose. Yeah. Is my favorite cocaine reference of all time. I didn't know that needed to be a category, but it is the best musical cocaine reference in our world's history. What? That's a strong statement. I know.

Miss Prince, there have been quite a few of them. There have been quite a few of them. Jeez. All right. That would be a good draft. idea. I really did not expect all of the drug references

through the course of this, but you probably didn't expect... I mean, we didn't even talk about morphine, which is all over this. Yeah, yeah, it's right in the beginning. Harold, go to your room. I have one problem across the lyrical canon of this album. And it's from Hey Angel.

I just can't get on board with the lyric. I'm just happy getting you stuck in between my teeth. That's gross. That's gross. I tried to get there. You're like, oh, well, that's unique, at least. It's not, like, cliche and been done before.

But it's gross. We don't need that. I'm going to ask a question that I'm really scared to ask. Don't do it. Do you feel like you know what that means? Yes. Okay, I just got it. Yes.

There we go. Fair, fair, fair. Right? Nora. All right, what's your favorite lyric? We have to move on. Sorry to lead you down that path, but like, it's just wrong. No, I can't think.

My job is shittiest lyric. Your job is favorite lyric. And I just delivered. And so did you, I think. No. I can actually deliver even further. I think the best lyrics on this album are in from the dining table. Okay.

Kudos to Harry for the masturbation reference, but really, we haven't spoke since you went away. Comfortable silence is so overrated. Why won't you ever be the first one to break? Even my phone misses your call. Comfortable silence is so overrated. Why won't you ever be the first one to break? Even my phone misses your call. Yeah, I love that.

I'm into it. I'm real into it. Well, as we say, that's one of the best songs on the album, and I do think lyrically it's gorgeous and sung with the lineage of Jeff Buckley. It's a very special, very special composition. Nora, I'm just happy getting you to grade this thing. A minus. Oh, we agree.

This is really... We're in lockstep. This is like never happened. The Venn diagram, the two circles are almost one circle. Complete overlap. We really see eye to eye on this Herald album. Well, I'll tell you...

It does feel good. It feels like unity and harmony on the day of Harry, April 15th. On the day of Harry's style. Yes. Great job by us. Great job by us. Yeah.

I think it's a really... really strong, really consistent album. There's very little that I dislike here, almost nothing that I dislike. I think he gets to higher highs eventually. So one, just want to leave some room to grow here. Also, there are songs that, like, compel me without sort of deeply moving me.

Like, I think that is sort of the case with... Yeah. Sign of the Times. Yeah. Agree. And so there's some space there between maybe like a perfect A plus plus plus album. But overall,

there's a lot that I like to go back to here. And particularly I admire the deafness with how this album establishes who Harry Styles is post one direction while acknowledging the lineage in a way that, you know, it's true for some people and you want people to be true to themselves and how they express themselves. But there's something very refreshing about someone saying, no, my past I'm proud of.

And this is also stuff that I enjoyed doing and got a lot out of. Now there were some things that I didn't like about it that I want to change how we're working and how we're doing this. And I want to go to Jamaica and do it differently and work with the same people and really ruminate on it. but I appreciate how much of a bridge it was for Harry to be able to go sort of be the Harry styles that he wanted to be without feeling like he had to dismiss what had come before. And that is the vibe that he invites his entire audience to participate in, which is let's be comfortable with who we are,

where we came from and where we are now, it's okay. And I think that is at the core, that fundamental compelling attraction of this human being and why he was able to make the leap and create what so far is our highest rated album in this series, Nora.

Wow. Wonder what'll happen next. This has been every single album, Harry Stiles, I'm Nora Pinciotti. He's Nathan Hubbard. We will be back on Monday with another member of the band making his solo debut when we talk about Nile Horan's Flickr. He's coming on the pod? No. He is? What do you know? It's just us.

It's just going to be us. Thank you, as always, to Super Producer Kaia McFallon for production on this episode. And we'll talk to you all soon.