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

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

It's finally time to enter 'Harry's House.' Nora and Nathan talk about whether "As It Was" is the biggest hit off this album, or if there are other songs in contention (9:28). They also discuss songs on this album where Harry shows more vulnerability (30:25), plus all of the references to food, drugs, and alcohol that happen throughout (47:26). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, guys, Rachel Lindsay here, and I am teaming up with your favorite Ringer podcasters to deliver the Bravo drama and news that you've been craving on morally corrupt. It's the show about all things Bravo, from the housewise to summer house and everything in between. We'll be mentioning it all every week. Check it out on Spotify and the ringer.com. Hello, and welcome to every single album. I'm Nora Princeati. As always, I'm here with Nathan Hubbard on a Sunday, three days after the release of Harry's house, a couple of days after a college reunion for Nathan that I believe has left him maybe a little worse for the wear.

But Nathan, tell us how you're doing now that you've had some fun back on campus and also a few days to process Harry's house. You said a couple of days ago, it was a couple of hours ago that I woke up and flew back to talk Harry with you because I've been listening to this album pretty much nonstop in between three-minute, hey, conversations that happen at college reunions. So if Nathan sounds a couple octaves lower than usual, just that is why. Yeah. And you know what? It's okay because one of the awesome things about Harry's house

is all of the wonderful underneath harmonies that Harry does down below his melodies. I love the low harmony stuff all over this album. So I'm just going to make. Yeah, you will be our low harmonies. You will be our baseline for this pod. What was the, were people talking about Harry's house at your reunion? Like, what was the buzz? This was a reunion full of old people. Yes, actually, they were. I mean, this has been a pretty big release, I think. He did a lot this week leading up to the release. He was on Howard Stern. He was on the Today show. He was sort of ever present, wasn't he? It didn't feel like too much, but it did feel like the buildup of something that,

was intended to be huge. How did you find this week? It was very fun. I mean, he's, he's, Harry in bits and spurts, I think is so fantastic because he always wears something really cool. He always has such great energy.

I will say, because he's just so non-revealing in interviews, I find the, you know, an hour and a half with Zane Lowe, a long thing with Howard Stern. It's always just like, all right, how many times is this guy going to say something about sort of like getting a chance to process and it being really cool to hang out with everybody and

really work on making an album. Like it all seemed just totally genuine. But it is funny how, you know, we're only three album cycles in here with Harry, right? But we're getting to the point where he has kind of given all of these answers before. But then we had the one night only and in concert, I think is like where above all else he just totally thrives. So it's been great. Love having Harry around. I'll take as much Harry as. possible. I want to ask you about that, though, because I feel a little bit that way about this album. We're going to get into this, and I think we both enjoy what we're hearing. But there is a little bit of surface layer, not superficiality. That's the wrong way to say it, because I think

there is some depth to the lyrical component of this album. But I'm curious, there is a little bit of a veneer that we get with Harry always, right? He's funny. He's curious. He's interesting. But we haven't always, always in the music, gotten this sort of very deep emotional, cathartic, you know, outpouring in the album. And this feels like a fun, breezy album of the summer. I don't know that it feels like this introspective, deep thing that he's actually processed a bunch of emotion on.

Does it to you? No, because it's not. It is a light, breezy, poppy confection of an album that I love, love, love, love, love very much. But it's not a Katie Perry album. You know, it's not like plastic pop, right? No, but I think it's closer than that is a matter of a distinction between the sounds

that people liked to use at, you know, circa 2010 and someone choosing to use mostly the sounds of the 80s to do something fairly similar. To me, a pop music stand, if ever there was, one, I freaking love it. I think it's really, really wonderful to listen to.

I'm going to listen to it a ton this summer. To the extent that that feels like something that we have to bring up, I think it is because there is a slight bit of dissonance that's evolved as we've gotten into the third Harry album cycle, where, and our friend Kate Hallowell pointed this out when she wrote about some takeaways from the album on the ringer.com. Let's remember that this is the artist who introduced himself as a solo act by flying through the air singing a song about the end of the world. Right?

It was like big, serious, important. And then, you know, Fine Line was a very poppy album, but it was also personal and emotional once you get, got deeper into it past the sort of like watermelon sugariness of it all. And we were also sort of in this. like Harry Rapture stage, we're just getting to know how fun he is and how outlandish he is and the clothes and the jokes and all of the ways that he can present himself. I think now that,

I mean, we talked about the stakes for this album being so incredibly high. It set something up where there might have been an expectation that he was going to make a capital B, capital S big statement. Yes. And I don't think he did. No. But I think he made a capital G,

capital R, great record. And like, that's fine. But I do think that there's a tad bit of friction between those two things. Because I'm not sure that this is the album that's going to win a Grammy. This is not winning the Grammy for album of the year. It's not. Well, and part of that is because of the competition that it's going to face. But I don't know what it's just a really, really fun, good pop record that has a lot of

songs that I think sound really great. I love that. It's a road-tripping album of the year. Totally. Totally. And I love those kinds of jams. I do understand if it leaves some people wanting a little bit more. But I would actually, on the whole, generally speaking, prefer that my pop stars just focus on making great songs rather than big statements. So I'm into it. Yeah. I listened to it when it came out at midnight. And I listened to it on my phone because I was in a hotel room. And I was in a hotel room. and I have to say that on first pass, playing it on my phone, I was a little, I guess I was a little bit disappointed sonically. I just didn't, it felt there was just a sheen on it that I wasn't loving. And then I put in headphones and I was like, oh, now I get it.

If you don't get the bass and the low end on this album, you completely miss it. It does not translate nearly as well over iPhone. So much of the low register makes this album the bass, the low notes on the synth, and then that harmonizing underneath his melodies that he does very quietly. I love the production on this album. There's just so much space in between all of these rich textures that kind of mirror, for me, they kind of mirror his motion on stage. It's really an album that's going to be so fun to hear live because there's all this, like,

There's all this frenetic but highly coordinated offbeats that give him almost every opportunity to sort of slide in and out of his like Joker meets Mick Jagger dance thing, you know. I want to know what is the arrangement equivalent of Harry like whipping the microphone cord around behind him when he goes around. Right. Exactly. You can sort of see those motions, right? And there are equally as many pauses that give him that opportunity to sort of charmingly bait the crowd and spread his arms and, do that familiar like reverse fist pump, throw his head back and scream out. You know, you can sort of see his live performance in a lot of this music. It feels like it was made

for an arena. Totally. And especially, I mean, you know that there's going to be some big horn section that pops up when he tours this and it's just going to be sick. Yeah, not unlike what we saw at Coachella. Right. Right. And it's going to be a blast and we can count on that. shall we? And I think this is actually a good place to jump in and talk about the biggest hit because it's a little hard to figure out, right? Because we've had so much more time with as it was that the question is kind of can anything come for that. But it's another way to kind of look at how it fits in with how we're seeing Harry in this moment and also just his overall discography. because I will say for, and I really, really like this album,

I don't think there is a watermelon sugar on this record. No. If there is, it's late night talking to me. So thumbs up, thumbs down, and late night talking. Because I'm very much thumbs up. I just don't think that everybody else will be. But how do you feel about that song?

I feel, I think it's a great song. I think it's one of the best songs in the album. I shouldn't say great. It's a good song. I enjoy. it. It's super fun. The can't get you off my mind stuff just sounds like Sean Mendez lost in Japan

to me. I can't get you off my mind. Can't get you off my mind. Can't get you off my mind. And it doesn't ruin the song for me at all. I hear it. I hear a lot of the sort of the groove in there.

I just, it doesn't, this is, one of the first albums in a long time I said this to you and we talked briefly the other day before we were like, wait, save it for the pod. But this is one of the first, like, big albums in a long time where I actually think the verses are way stronger than the choruses. That's not to say the courses are weak. It's just a lot of the verses start in grape juice starts that way. I think late night talking starts where you're like, okay, let's go. And it sort of builds up, builds up.

And then it doesn't quite throw you over the edge on the chorus. You know, I'd be so interested to learn a lot more about how they compose these songs and whether they started, a lot of times you start with a melody or a hook that's in the chorus and then you build around it. It really felt like they got great grooves and then tried to evolve those grooves into songs. Right. That makes sense. I think, so I get your argument that the chorus to late night talking does it like totally, totally send you again. I am. just a sucker for that big sort of brass bandy exciting thing. So I really love it. Well, you got it here. And I got it.

The one thing that drives me crazy on that song is there some sort of, I think it's like, it's some synth part where it sounds really, really echoy. I just want to make you happy a babe. Like even just in the individual. notes, there's some sort of weird reverb thing. I think it is unbelievably strange every time it pops in and we'll drop a clip.

But I do not understand it, but that is my singular note for that song. I really, really love that song. I think it's super fun. Is there anything else on this album that for you, do you think that'll be the next single? That's probably why you played it at Coachella. Yeah. Is there anything else that you think? I mean, it's second on the album. Yeah. Anything that

sort of rivals it? in terms of what I would guess would be super commercially viable and a big song, no, I think that would, I think as it was, we'll continue to be a big song, but I think it's that in late night talking. Really? Music for a sushi restaurant, you wouldn't drop. I would drop it at some point, but if I had to pick a horse sushi restaurant, music for a sushi restaurant, music for whatever you. I would drop it at some point, but if I had to pick a horse,

between those two, and that's not strictly a matter of preference. But if I had to pick a horse between those two, I would pick late night talking. Yeah. I mean, I think that's probably the safer one. I just, I'm with you that I think a lot of people are going to like it, but it's not watermelon sugar. And so I might try, I mean, I know the kids busted him for the China Ann McLean song, exceptional from Disney's Ant Farm. But like that melody is pretty ubiquitous. I mean, Saturday in the Park by Chicago borrows it, too. It's like, that's a sort of tale is old as time on that. But I think that's a really interesting, and despite the fact that the kids all busted him,

I think it's actually a pretty interesting and creative and somewhat sort of innovative song for him. I might take a spin on that one, just because it's, it is a lot of fun. It starts the album. I mean, it's going to be so great live. And it's, I think he said, maybe it was to Zane Low, I'm forgetting which interview, But he talked about choosing that song to be the first track, basically because whenever he was in a room with someone who would say, oh, will you play me a little bit from the new album? Like, can I hear anything?

He would always gravitate to playing them that song and just feeling like if I have one chance to sort of represent what I'm doing, I want it to be with this. And maybe part of that is because it's fun and accessible. And maybe there were some tracks that he wanted to sort of keep special secrets until it was ready. but that makes a lot of sense to me as something that felt like this is a good way to hook people. So I'd be into that. Yeah. Yeah, there isn't that much else that you might drop as a single. I like grape juice a lot.

I think, again, that's a song where I think the verses are badass. I just thought the chorus, I wanted the chorus to sort of elevate a little bit more. But it goes pretty hard in the beginning. I think it's terrific. Cinema is pretty sexy. It's also John Mayer's best guest performance since he played 99 problems with Jay-Z at the 9-11 concert in New York.

But it's more, yeah, it's more like chade than, it's more chadet than like a 2020 single, I think. Yeah, I think that's true. But I also don't think, that this is an album where they're staking a whole bunch on how do all the singles do, right? Like, I think he wants people to listen to this top to bottom as much as possible. I think for all that it may lack in like a clear cut, this is the watermelon sugar of this record. I think it's really consistent.

There's a lot of, there's deep cuts here that I know I'm going to have on playlists and go back to a bunch of times. So I think it's a really, really strong example of an album. Yeah, that's right. And I think the more we get to know about Harry, we know that he cares about being an album artist and what the album as a whole is. So I think it's probably more successful on those terms than in the terms of how many, you know, billboard chart topping number ones are going to be here. Now, to an extent, like, Harry could put out wheels on the bus and it's probably going to go to number one for a minute. Yeah, for sure. In fact, some of his One Directionmates have basically done that.

There are some ghosts of fine line through this album, which I like in terms of just sort of the structure of the album. Like the Little Freak Matilda sort of interlude. I was thinking about who you delicate point of you. You can let it go. You can throw a party full of everyone you know. reminds me a lot of cherry and falling together. Yeah. It comes at sort of the same part of the album.

I think Love of My Life. Yeah, when he's just like, I'm feeling fabulous. Now we're going to play heartbreaking sad songs for a moment. Let's process some trauma. I mean, love of my life feels he always has that reflective, gorgeous, ethereal closer. Satellite is actually what Barber. a ton of the drums from Fineline.

The like Bonnevere, Perth drums that we hear in Fineline with the snare, they really are cousin songs, I think. Yeah. It's not for me, but yeah. Oh. Oh. So spoiler alert. All right.

I think that about covers it in terms of what's going to hit the hardest here. But what do you think is the best song? It's not even close. It's keep driving. I'm all concerned with how the engine sounds. Yes! It's awesome. I knew you were going to say that.

It's, give me all of the two minute, 20 seconds. I mean, you literally want it to keep driving. Like, you want it to keep going. I just like, it is such a repeat for me. I mean, Raya makes it into a meaningful lyric in an album. There's more. cocaine on this thing? Like, it's crazy.

I love this song. There's a lot of cocaine on this album. But yes, I can get over it for Keep Driving because it's just such a good song. It just makes me feel like it's supposed to be the either like for a great montage or over the closing credits in like the best 90s movie you've ever seen in your entire life. Like, I'm so into it. I don't even like cars. Like, car culture means nothing to me.

And I just love, love, love this song. Yeah, there's just something about it that is incredibly strong. It is, for me, it can't be a single. Maybe it can. I don't know. Who the hell cares? But this is a awesome song. Did you...

Harry Styles to put out a single of a song with the lyric, cocaine, side boob, choker with a sea view. You know, the lyrics on Spotify say side book, but it definitely is side boob, isn't it? It's side boob. It has to be. I don't, I'm like upset that it's sideboob, so I guess if it were sidebook, like maybe, but he says side boob, which is a weird thing to say. Also, like, look, I don't need to analyze this too closely.

But when you're sitting in a car, you sit side by side with people. I don't know. You're in the car, you're driving home from the beach or something, somebody's wearing a bathing suit. It's a side boob viewing opportunity. You think Harry's creepily scoping Olivia's sideboob? No, I consent to scope the side boob, but I think he's scoping some side boob.

Also, what's a side book? I don't know, but I'm just telling you what it says. He definitely makes it, he buries the consonant at the end of that word. But this song is pretty Revers all over again. Yeah, exactly. This song is pretty representative of the rest of the album in a bunch of ways, right?

Lots of like single word scene setting. It's almost like, he almost lets us in on how he, you're inside his head. All the scene setting visual imagery stuff, it's like how we process. Yeah, it's like how we processes the world.

Yeah, it's like his Pinterest page or something. It's like all these little polaroids that he stitches together into a narrative. and we sort of get right inside. I mean, it should almost be called Harry's head, not Harry's house. Well, I think those are kind of one and the same, right? Like, I think Harry's house has become this shorthand for the curation of the spaces where he feels at home and happy and comfortable. And I think the things that seem to, as a collective, create that are like the love of someone that he cares about.

A lot of breakfast foods. A lot of foods. Medibles. I mean, this is, this album is like the very hungry caterpillar. The whole book, it's like, then he ate rice and fried an egg. And then...

Green eyes, fried rice, like cooking egg on you. Hash browns. Yeah, it's just ridiculous. But it is a very interesting sort of day in the life with Harry Stiles. Just seeing how he processes the world. And he's just sort of verbal diarrhea. into his lyrics and I'm here for it.

This sort of gets back to where I think there is a little bit of friction between Harry the celebrity and Harry the artist. We do we take Harry the celebrity awfully seriously and in some ways he's earned that like he seems smart and thoughtful

and in some ways he's asked us to do that right? I think I think Harry Stiles the debut album in particular set us on a course that kind of asked us to do that. Yeah. That said, what he is giving us right now, if we look closely at it, like, this is a very basic man. This is like a wonderfully basic man who just wants to have a nice time and have some eggs and

some sex and go for a drive and make some nice songs about it. And that's fine. That's really, really great. More power to him. He's telling us what his happy places are and we all deserve our happy places. So I, I, Nora Princeati, am very happy that Harry has chosen to celebrate that, even if it's not like big world changing ideas.

And that's what we're learning. He doesn't have, I mean, I do think that, you know, his inclusiveness, the way that he sort of creates safe spaces for people, is a big, you know, is a big impactful idea. Oh, I do too. But I don't think it comes through. And I also think that the way that, he has done that is, and I actually think there is something very powerful in this, he's just

sort of always done it. Like, Harry Stiles is not going out there and talking about incredibly specific policy matters or getting like corally involved with politicians or doing things with hyper specificity in terms of the issues that he believes in. But from basically day one, he's just been like, what are you even talking about that this would be an issue? Love who you love, be who you are? Like, who could possibly think otherwise? He made some pretty strong statements about his belief in abortion rights on the Howard Stern Show this week. I just don't think anyone should be able to make decisions about anyone else's body.

It doesn't really make any sense to me. So he does put himself out there in that way. No, he totally does. But he does it. And I think this is lovely. where, like, he paints with a broad brush in a really lovely way where it's just sort of like, yeah, I don't even think about this as politics. I think about this as self-evident, like, what the heck man, like,

let's all have a good time. Yeah. And there's an important place for that. And I think it's actually kind of, he doesn't take himself too seriously. It's, there's something just very warm. My guy is not going to write a protest song, right? He's not going to be the leader of a movement in that way. But that's okay.

We've come to expect and learn what he is. He's here to have a good time. Have a good time all the time. And want that kind of genuine happiness for other people, which sort of in a transitive sort of way can end up being very powerful. But yes, I think we've... One thing that we have learned is that we have come a long way from, here is my song about the end of the world.

and a mother expressing that on her deathbed to a child. It's interesting as he gets even more famous and wealthy. Like, he gets in, are we going to see him get into so much of a bubble that he sometimes has trouble? It's nice that he wants that for everybody. But he's also, you know, in grape juice, he's talking about drinking red wine from 1982, which is like the most expensive and best French Bordeaux year ever. So, like, it's cute. you know, Harry can afford that shit.

At some point, at some point, will he be able to make music and lyrics that people can relate to? Maybe that's why he keeps it sort of high level. Although I do think that the most compelling stuff on this album is in a song like Matilda, where he goes, you know, he's clearly singing about processing, processing trauma. Yeah. I want to talk about Matilda in a second. But I will say as a counterargument to that, okay, yes, he references a specific vintage. In general, most of what he seems to have on the mood board of things Harry

Stiles believes are part of a wonderful life are going on drives and hanging out with your friends and going to the beach. And they're pretty universal things. Now, maybe the distinction is that those were those sort of markers of domestic bliss were part of his pandemic experience. And and they were not going to be part of a lot of more normal people's pandemic experience. But he's not in general talking about, you know, tearing down hotel rooms at the Mandarin Oriental. Like that's not how he rolls. Our relatable king. Sort of for now.

Okay. So we both agree that Keep Driving is the best song. You mentioned Matilda. Is that kind of a sub-a-a-a-sub. subcontender for you or do you have other subcontenders? I don't have another subcontender. I have to be honest. I mean, I'm interested in your thoughts on Matilda.

I like it. He's talking a lot on this album about things that have just been on my mind or I've just been thinking about. The falsetto on this song is beautiful. Yeah. I would be fascinated to know who this is about. What's your takeaway from it? Yeah. So Matilda, to me, I think, is a little bit what sign of the times is to you.

where I'm impressed by it and I'm interested in it without it truly moving me. I will say it contains, and I'm going to save this for later, but it contains the single most vivid and striking lyrical vignette. I think Harry Stiles has ever written, like the one that grabs me more than any other line

he's ever put in a song has. In general, though, I have a feeling it does resonate with a lot of people. And it's a brave and interesting, an impressive thing to do to make this song if it resonates with even half of the people who listen to it. So I'm glad that it's on the album.

It's one of the songs that I've skipped sometimes because I just, I can't connect with it. I know I'm not connecting with it in the way that it's sort of meant to be connected with except in a few specific moments. But I do think it's beautiful. and I will get to the lyric, but there's something in there

that I just can sort of see more starkly than I'm used to in a lot of his songs. How do you feel about it? It's not a skip for me, that's for sure. It definitely is a heart tugger. I want more from, I want more of this. I want him to go even deeper. It feels, I want him to write a Matilda about himself.

Don't have to be sorry. Yeah, well, that's how I feel. And obviously, that's where I say, like, so it's, the specific story that he writes, if it's not totally grabbing me, I still think it's really impressive because I bet it it will grab a lot of people. So if you're doing that and you're giving that as a gift to a lot of your fans, that's a really, really cool song to do. And that's a really, really impressive challenge to have taken on and succeeded in. If Harry writes Matilda about Harry,

and I believe it, then it doesn't really... Then that works for everybody, right? And that's the sort of more interesting and compelling version of that to me. Yeah. I don't think that he really wants to write that song. I mean, there's very little...

There's the sort of spoken part of as it was where he goes through a lot of his own sort of anxieties. Not all that much of the pain on this album is Harry's pain. Even when he's a little jealous and little freak, it's not really that. It's not digging at him. It's not eating at him. Yeah.

He's just not doing a ton of kind of, you know, bleeding in front of you on his record. No. And even here, he's just sort of speculating about the character in Doll's book. It doesn't feel like it's necessarily rooted in personal

experience unless maybe it is he doesn't really he doesn't tell us that fully. Well, I mean and he also, he kind of tells us the polar opposite of that, right? He has expressly said, this is about someone else, this is my attempt

to tell a story that is pretty far from me. Yeah. Mission accomplished. So clearly far and away, it's Keep Driving for you. I would say the same for me, but my B category is Little Freak, music for a sushi restaurant, and late night talking.

Yeah. I'm with you. I'm with you. I think Little Freak is terrific, and it's not just because, I mean, this is the one where, when he says, I disrespected you. That's the one where there's some real vulnerability there. And that I think is actually probably for me the most interesting lyric on the album. But I don't think this is about Olivia, do you?

No, it's definitely not. It's definitely like a hindsight thing. Do you think it's weird that at the 245 mark, the you? Sounds a lot like the Now I'm Covered in You from Taylor Swift's Ivy. Hmm. Hmm. Do I think it's weird or do I think it's interesting? Fascinating. Potentially telling. I'm not so sure. Not to jump to any of these songs about Taylor Swift, but is this song about Taylor Swift?

Was there a broken ankle in the snowmobile accident? We've never sold my birth of mar. We've given those wonderful hospital workers so many flowers for just being good, kind people who didn't give up their story. And now I'm like, whatever, hit the violation. Give us the records. Broken ankle, question mark. I mean, there's no way that all of that came out of this relationship. It just didn't go for long enough.

but it's fun to speculate. And there are... So she doesn't really wear a lot of track suits. She's worn a track suit, but she doesn't have a track suit vibe. Yeah, that's not her move. Particularly in the, in the Harry era. Well, that's true.

And I guess, I guess it could be... I guess it could be about Olivia. I mean, listen, her ex-husband wore a track suit in the What's Up with That sketches. where and Ted Lassau. Yeah, exactly. So maybe she was borrowing tracksuits a lot. I don't think it's about Olivia.

I think there's a lot of songs about Olivia on this record, but I don't think that's one of them. See, I think there actually aren't that many. Well, because you think the timeline is muddy? I think the timeline is money. And I think that a lot of these are sort of retrospectives on relationships that ended. Like, I don't think love of my life is about Olivia. Love of my life is about England.

I don't know you half as well as all my friends. I won't pretend that I've been doing everything I can. It's about England? Love of My Life is like the song that he always wanted to write for his homeland. This is, okay, we're going to talk about what songs we would cut. Because for a second, I wanted to say that I would cut love of my life. Because I have to be honest, I don't think. it sounds very good. I don't think the music of it sounds in a way that is super pleasant to me,

except for the piano at the end, which I think is lovely. But I think the lyrics are so cool. I think this story to it where he wanted to write this song about the UK, like being home, but also there's a line about like my friends know you better than I do. Like he's been away so much. I just am really, really into the story of it. So I sort of feel like, I can't part with it. But I just don't, the sound of it does not work for me. It's a little too drab. It's a little too death march.

This is how you felt about Fine Line too. And they're absolutely of the same DNA. And they are of the same DNA. And Fine Line is Harry's favorite song on that record. So I get it. Like what is for me is not necessarily for everybody. But I am split between loving the story of that song and just not really wanting to listen to it a ton.

I thought musically, I actually enjoyed it. I have to be honest. You have a higher tolerance for songs that are kind of bummers than I do. Yeah. I dig it. I'm glad that you're into it. But what are you cutting, Nathan? Well, that's what I'm asking you.

If you're, if you're, because I haven't even answered what I'm cutting. I don't know. I don't know that I'm like, I'm so, okay. I would say the songs that I'm less totally like, grabbed by include love of my life but I don't want to get rid of it

for the storyline reasons. How do you feel about daydreaming? I like daydreaming. I'm into daydreaming. It's just sort of like it's just fun. It's light. It's bright.

Satellite? Satellite. Satellite is like not totally for me either. That's what I thought at the beginning but it's really grown on me. it really just builds and builds and builds. And in that sense, it's kind of a cousin of fine line on the other album. But the more that I played this, the more I got into it. At first, I thought it was kind of a may a throwaway.

But I'm kind of into the crescendoing, you know, bigness of this song. No, I think that's cool. Look, we're only doing this because we have to, right? Again, I feel pretty strongly that top to bottom, this is a strong album. Like for as much as I think it's fair to quibble with sort of how high are the highs. It's a really, really, like, these people know what they're doing in making just a top top of a good record. I don't know that I want to cut anything, but forced to, that's a contender. And then the last one that I'm sort of split on is boyfriends.

Okay. It's sort of funny. Yeah, let's talk about boyfriends. I have some others that I actually think I would... Let's talk about boyfriends. I have some others that I think I would cut. With the John Mayer stuff all over this album, Boyfriends feels a little bit like his daughters to me.

Fathers bigger to your daughters. Like... Yeah. Is it... I don't think it's quite that corny. Like, look, I think it's... He's kind of pandering. It's a little bit...

Yeah. He's really pandering. Boyfriend, you're so easy. They take you for granted. I mean, so, okay, okay. And this is a conversation that I had with my own boyfriend of over whether or not he was pandering. And I think he undeniably is in certain. ways. I mean, you're trying to talk yourself out of the reality that this is a very highly

pandering song. So we know, but it is, it is pandering, but the other, the flip side of that coin is kind of like knowing where your bread is buttered. And I would say the distinction between daughters and boyfriends is that daughters is this appeal to the men, right, to the father figures. Fathers be good to your daughters. Like, because you are the be all and end all of their worlds and you will shape them and they will grow out of you and you are the progenitor and you are very, very important, which is true in some ways, but it's a little corny. Boyfriends is a song for the girlfriends, right? Boyfriends is not for the boyfriends.

No one's talking to the boyfriends. But in both cases... The song Boyfriends is talking to the girlfriends. In both cases, the audience is the dough-eyed girls in the front row. And I'm not really into that. To boyfriends everywhere. Fuck you. Yeah, but I think

I think it's a tick less cheesy just because he is he's sort of giving the women the reins in a way that's sort of funny. It feels like this admission of just like yeah, you guys have made my career in a lot of ways

that I got to pay the piper a little bit. It's pandering. It's pandering. Come on. This is classic Harry, styles. He can get out of any jam because by like batting his eyes and looking handsome and saying something charmingly British and you let him off the hook. I think we got to hold his feet to the fire on this one a little bit. Okay. Is it that or is this him kind of paying up and being like, I am nothing without the women who adore me? I would love to believe it. I would love to believe it.

Look, I wouldn't cut it, though, because I think it helps shape the album, especially if you listen from front to back. I'm surprised. I thought daydreaming was kind of meh. I mean, John Mayer is playing guitar. It borrows a lot from Christopher Cross's ride like the wind. It has a little bit of treat people with kindness vibes that I sort of like. but like lyrically there's just not much to this at all. It's like he's sitting in a field.

Yeah, there's not much to it lyrically. But it's driven by a groove that I really like. And then also it's just such a good example of something that I find very charming and funny and silly about this record, which is that like it's a yacht rock album half the time. It sounds like Steely Dan. That's, that's Christopher Cross. What do you want? He's, Christopher Cross is yacht. rock. There's something very like endlessly charming about the fact that this guy, this pop star,

who were like this gender bending savant who's doing so much for the music industry and he's so fascinating and we dissect his relationships and we don't really know anything about him but we want to know so badly. And Harry Styles, Harry Styles, Harry Styles, Harry Styles. Homeboy just made like an easy listening yacht rock album. Yeah. I don't think it goes to. quite that far. But I... It goes pretty close. It is,

it feels a little bit more, um, again, I think there's some really nuanced, uh, interesting musical work on this album. I do too. I do too.

I'm being a little facetious. No, I know. But it is, it is undeniably fun and breezy and stays a little bit at the surface level. Look, I, I don't love daylight.

Daylight, you come and calling it all times. Ooh, I love both daydreaming and daylight. I think daylight is fun, but I come away from it being like, this must be how it feels to be in a relationship with Harry. Like, again, it's fun and breezy and physical, but it stays at kind of a surface level. And he's turning interesting phrases, but not really letting you in.

He got you with the cocaine in my kitchen stuff, though, didn't he? No, I wish he would stop making drug references. Well, they're all over this album. I know. Just to be clear. Don't do drugs, kids. There's drinking in boyfriends. He starts secretly drinking.

Drinking the wine and satellite. There's wine glass, puff pass, there's edibles, and keep driving. Wine glass, puff pass. There's doses in high and saline. You're never going to hear a complaint about wine or edible. There's spilled beer in Little Freak. There's cocaine kitchen in daylight. There's what kind of pills are you on and as it was and grape juice is completely about red wine.

He's all over the place. We might need to stage an intervention. Grape juice is like a love song too. Yeah. We may need to make... Somebody's got check on Harry. I mean, look, we're still sort of in this time period where we were talking about music

that came out of the pandemic. And either Harry or Adele is going to wind up with the crown for best pandemic song about wine. Soaking it all for fun, but now I only soak up wine. Well, there's a lot of entrance into the category from Harry on this album.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think he would, I think grape juice is his, would be his official entry. For sure. There's plenty of, there's plenty of contenders.

Look, and this is not me saying that I don't like daylight as a song. I just think, in terms of strength, I sort of found daylight and daydreaming to be interesting. You could live without them. Yeah, sort of woven into the texture and fabric of the album, it works. But if I'm going to cut one, I think I'm probably cutting daydreaming just because, you know, fuck you, John Mayer. Well, that's fair. That's very fair. Daylight is only two minutes and

44 seconds. So if you cut it, it wouldn't be that much that much off the album. I'm into it. I'm into them because they're like poppy and fun, but I agree with you that because there are sort of poppy fun songs that I like better than those on the album, it could, it could, it could continue to exist as its sort of whole entity without them. I found myself coming back to Little Freak, coming back to music for sushi restaurant, coming back to cinema, but obviously just hammering the repeat button on Keep Driving.

Same, same, same, same. Okay, so we've talked about John Mayer, gross. Guitar sounds good. It does. It sounds really good. Is that enough to make him the most important collaborator here? No. He's mostly working with the same people.

You know, Kit Harpoons here. We're doing it like we've been doing it. Yeah, and I wanted to be sort of cute. I think it's the vocal engineers who are his most important collaborators. There are so many interesting harmonies and layering of his vocal all over this album. And obviously, a lot of that is production, too, as they sat in this studio and said, all right, here's our melody. What are we going to frame around it? But I think it's vocally the most interesting album that he's ever made for sure across any, you know, One Direction or

solo catalog. We've talked so much about sort of like searching for Harry's signature. And one of those things to me very clearly is just he makes records that sound really good. Right. Sometimes you are searching for substance. But the, the sounds of the things that he gives you are really, really, really good. And I certainly take your point that the engineering has a lot to do with that on this record in particular. Are there a couple moments that you feel like really steal that? I love the falsetto on Matilda. For me, that is like that it just grabs you. There's no, you know, there's no like one direction

style huge vocal moment, you know? Like there's no like it's. got to be you sort of moment on here. I just think that sort of consistently layered throughout every track is a really just beautiful series of harmonies that they just really, I thought, interestingly pieced together. I'm sure you're going to tell me it's the scatting on music for sushi. Oh my God. No, it's so funny. I'm glad it exists just so that I can know that it exist. What is going on here? It's fun.

Scooby-do do-do. I'm all about it. You can't tell me some edibles weren't involved in that decision. Clearly they were. They were involved in most of the decisions on this album. It's like, come on, man. You don't have to publish the product development. Let's just see how it ends.

Well, but okay. I know you're kidding. But the development cycle for this album and for all of Harry's albums, I do think that he is sort of reaping the benefits of having this close-knit group of collaborators. Yes. Because to your point of just there being so many little vocal moments that sound really, really good, and sometimes they take you a few listens and headphones and turning the volume up to access all of them. But I'm really convinced that this album is the product.

of people who know each other really well, people who know each other's work styles really well. Now, I wonder if there's a step to be taken at some point where some fresh blood would maybe push him lyrically or help him find a way that's comfortable to get a little bit more open in some of these songs. Right. But in terms of the engineering of the songs, the production,

the arrangements, and especially how they're working with his instrument, his voice, these are people who know what they're doing and who know each other really well and who know how to do that. If there's a reason for disappointment here, it's because we heard he's been hanging out with Joni Mitchell in songwriting circles. And all of the music on this album is really fun.

And I think some of the lyrics are interesting. We just didn't get really amazing portraits or, again, deep into Harry's heart. he's interesting because I think he kind of spans both. But he, I think he has more of the heart of a pop star than of a singer-songwriter. Even though he's a very good songwriter. But when he gives spectacle and something to watch and something interesting, somehow that feels more like right to me than, like,

I don't think that storytelling is his core. medium as an artist. I just don't think that that is what, like, is deep in Harry Styles' his musical soul. Is Harry Styles shallow? Is that what you're saying? Oh, my God. I plead the fifth. Wow. I don't know. I don't, I don't, I think he might have a very deep and rich emotional inner life, but I don't think that he's choosing to share it in a lot of ways. He's definitely not. And I'm okay with that. This is great, great summer album. Okay. So I like your pick. I was a little cute with mine. Can I give you mine? And please. So I went with everybody who plays all the trumpets and the horns. And so that's, there's a guy named Ivan Jackson who plays the trumpet on sushi restaurant. And that in particular, I wanted to highlight just because I love the idea that this is the moment when Harry got to just like go crazy. with all of the horns

because there's an interview that he did with One Direction where he mentions that he wanted trumpets on Olivia but they got nixed from the final arrangement Olivia's still not finished

there's some hay-hays in the chorus and I was begging and begging him to put hot like trumpets in and they never came and I was like, okay, great mix but you're still missing the trumption. I'm going to still miss the trumpet. So I'm just choosing to read this album as this like really wonderful full circle moment

where he got to have all of the trumpets that his heart desired. So I think Ivan Jackson for the trumpet on sushi. He also plays the horns on daydreaming. Tyler Johnson does like these cool synthesizer horns that are on grape juice. Joshua Johnson plays the saxophone on Matilda. Harry must have just been super. super into that. And I'm so glad that he is now in control of his musical destiny and he can call up a sax player or just add horns and trumpets to whatever songs he wants to.

I do think you made a point before that's going to be interesting. Like, where does he go from here? We can talk about that at the end. But they are a band now, this production crew, for sure. And now we're three in. And it would be interesting to see him pair it up with some others from here. not to take any shots. I just think, and I think this is a very different, interesting album. It doesn't feel like it's getting old.

I'm not tired of it. Keep going. But I'd like to see somebody lock him in a room and make him cry and then see what comes out of that room from a songwriting perspective. Even Hubbard, lock Harry Styles in a room and make him cry. Somebody's got to push that boy.

All right. Speaking of which, what's Pete Kerry? It's the drinking and drugs for me. Yeah, I said all of the sex drugs and breakfast foods. It's a very hungry caterpillar, a very hungover caterpillar, just eating and snorting and drinking everything that he sees in his path. How is this person as universally charming to people as he manages to be? When you say drinking and snorting all over, the place. I'm not like, ah, yes, how delightful. I know, but he just gets away with it.

He's just, he's Teflon. Nothing sticks to this guy. Well, he is hungry, too, though. Like, we got fried rice. We've got I could cook an egg on you. We've got I could cook an egg on you. We've got ice cream, bubble gum. Honey. Be this phone If you were an honey So I could be sticking to you

Pancakes And then we have fruit More eggs Huge piles of cocaine Yeah, he loves eggs He seems to be And then we still have We have fruit again

We've got the grape juice Yeah We could make a nice We could make a nice like grape juice sangria with the cherry and the kiwi and the watermelon's. Yeah. I imagine he rolls out of bed around 11, 1130 and whips up a convenient breakfast. That's where all the eggs are coming in.

It's just how our guy rolls, I think. Yeah, but that's, for me, it's P.K. You basically had that for P. Carey. Yeah, same. Sex, drugs and breakfast foods. Yeah. That's like, there are these dueling Pinterest boards, as you said, right? Like on one side, we have kind of being like nice and in nature and doing some yoga and thinking and being outside and enjoying the beach and all of these sort of, again, like domestic bliss.

And then on the other side, we have piles of cocaine and a lot of sex. We're learning a lot about our boy, Harold. I don't know if I don't know if pals of cocaine and a lot of sex. actually passes the Pinterest standards review system. But you get what I'm saying. Speaking of which, a terrifying segue, if ever there was one, I don't feel like we've talked about cinema enough as like one of the Harry's hornier songs on this album. Now, you don't think a lot of this record is about Olivia Wild,

but you have to think that cinema is about Olivia. Yeah, I hope it is. Otherwise, Olivia should be a little concerned. I just think you're cool. It's got a big thing for movie directors. How I feel like he wanted this song to be bigger than it actually is.

It's fun. But again, it landed more Chaudet than like, whoa, this is a fucking print song. This is like the heaviest, like, most sexual song I've ever. It just, it didn't land for me

quite in that way. So one thing I've learned is that I hate the word intimate. I don't want it song. I don't want it. Like, I think intimate is the new moist. But. Oh, man. I think if he wanted it to really, like, to be that, I don't know.

I don't get a lot from that song that makes me feel like he wanted it to be so huge. Like, if he wanted it to be this huge, big song, why wait until late in the song for it to kind of take off? I don't have an answer for that. I like it a lot. I just... Yeah, I do too. Yeah. My only quibble here is like I think cinema is living the life that cinema was supposed to live.

Okay. And you're probably right about that. It just didn't... But we agree that it's... We agree it's probably about Olivia. It's definitely... This one, I don't think there's a debate. This one is about Olivia.

Well, this would normally be... the point in time when I would say but Nathan are any of these songs about Taylor Swift? I think we've acknowledged that we think there's maybe some Little Freak potential. Little Freak is a great song.

I think there's definitely some potential that there's some really interesting parallels to Ivy. Plus Harry sings your delicate point of view. I don't know. Who has a song called Delicate? Thinking about who you?

You are your delicate point of view. Is it you that you're in my head? Because I know that it's delicate. Oh, God. We can fall down. Yeah, exactly. Taylor Swift. We can absolutely fall down the hole.

Dr. Taylor Swift. Doctor. If you need to know 50 cats in a minute, she's your doctor. She's a doctor now. I'm calling her Dr. Taylor Swift for the resume. Yeah. Yeah. Hello and welcome to every single album, Dr. Taylor Swift.

The answer is Little Freak, and I don't think anything else on this album is close. We've moved on. There just isn't a... We've mined the shit out of that for material at this point. Yeah, I was a little bummed. So I think, look, whatever, John Mayer's guitar playing is very good. I was bummed to see that he was on this album just because I feel like it kills. I don't think...

I don't think we're getting style Harry's version, Taylor's version. No. I probably didn't think we were to begin with, but I was holding out hope. I was holding out hope.

I wouldn't have put like a high percentage on it. But why is this something we care about? Why do we want these two to reconcile so badly? Because of the zeitgeist, Nathan. It just would have, I don't know. It would give us something to talk about. We got plenty to talk about.

But it would probably, I don't know, there might be songs. It would be fascinating. Do you think Olivia is ever going to be good enough for the fan base? Are they always going to be, eh, annoyed by it? I don't, I think maybe they could just get over it at some point. I don't really know what I do feel strongly about is that that has absolutely nothing to do with her. Like, I don't think that.

I totally agree. If they get married, if they have kit, like whatever. It has absolutely nothing to do with her action. there's just like, there's two things. I mean, there's probably a lot of things, but there's two main things going on. I think both of which are stupid. One of them is just that it's hard to let go.

A lot of people have crushes on Harry Styles. Yeah. It's hard to sort of see him with someone. And then the other thing is that like she's a, she's 10 years older than him and she's a mother who is publicly acknowledging that just through her actions, even though she doesn't talk about it. but like she is a sex life,

she wants her life to go on, she wants her romantic life to go on and is willingly embracing that and having fun and is with someone that she likes, it seems like. And that's an easy, unfortunately,

that is a very easy thing for our culture to vilify. So I'm happy for them. And I think everyone should be nice. I mean, as it was, it's about her too. Yeah?

Yeah. I mean, the two kids reference and all that. Yeah. Right. I wonder how Sudecas feels about all this. Someday we'll ask him.

Well, and then, right, the other thing is that that is a contentious situation. It is. The whole paper serving thing. And, yeah. His, no, it seems like a genuinely complicated thing. But I think that there, I think that, like, there's this whole weird angle to it that is becoming like, is Harry Styles somehow bad for her kids? And that is so dumb. There is absolutely not one shred of evidence or our ability to know the answer to that question one way or another.

The only reason that is something that is coming up is because a younger man is in a relationship with an older woman. If Jason Siddakis were dating a woman 10 years, his junior. Nobody would say shit. Nobody would even know. Like, no one would make a peep. It wouldn't come up. It just wouldn't be interesting. So that's my real.

I think Sudecas is a Ted Lasso character is somebody who, so many people connect with too, that they sort of ascribe all this positivity to him. And then she gets sort of unfairly cast as somehow being the problem child in the relationship. And then that carries over to the way that people feel about her with Harry. Anyway, it's all just sort of strange fandom psychology.

She went to my high school. Whoa. I was in one, I was in a play one semester. And it came up, the director who was the teacher in the theater department, it came up that he'd taught her and that they'd work together a bunch. And somebody asked like, oh, what was she like? And it was like the funniest answer he could have given it. First, he was like, oh, she was just like any other student here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then he was like, she was just like any other student.

But incredibly talented. and the hardest working person who came through these doors and clearly very strikingly beautiful and possessed a kind of charm that you just don't see normally. And it was just like, oh, she was just like any other student, but like better and magical in every way. Like, okay, got it. Cool.

Sweet. That's what a teacher generally does is tell you you're not good enough without telling you you're not good enough. I was like, okay. So cross off Be Olivia Wilde for my to-do list. Okay, so you just mentioned that the two kids lyric on as it was, maybe being about the situation with her. We've talked about a few different lyrics so far.

What's the best one? That's your job. My job is to tell you the worst. You're still doing this entire season. I've just been like trying to get you to be like, I think this lyric is so great. And every time you're just like, nope, you.

There's a real trigger moment for me on this album. Okay. Well, the best lyrics, since we're going to start off on a high note, I said that there was a part of Matilda that was visually striking to me in the lyrics in a way that's new in Harry's discography. And it's at the beginning, it's just the opening vignette. And specifically, you're trying to lift off the ground on those old two wheels. And you're trying to lift off the ground on those old two wheels.

There's something about the image of a little kid on a bicycle, like biking so hard that you just feel like it could sort of lift off and fly that I can see in front of my face in a way that I really, truly don't think I've ever been able to see a Harry Styles lyric before. well that's nice you found something that actually moved you i mean you no it really really really did lyrically i do like this album a lot even though there's not depth that's it's sort of the wrong word but in it in it there are all these little vignettes and polaroids sort of stitched together but i i enjoy the album lyrically it doesn't bother me it doesn't feel

contrived it doesn't feel except for except for boyfriends it doesn't feel pandering. So it does feel like sort of progress in that way. And maybe that's what he picked up from the work he did with Joni. Yeah. I think the actual lyrical writing, I like a lot of it. And I agree that it's a big step forward.

I mean, he's not always writing about that much. It's more, I think, to the extent that we're sort of trying to assess the depth here, It has to do with the subject matter more than it has to do with how he's choosing to write about it. I think the way that he's writing about, the subjects that he's choosing to write about, is largely really excellent. It's just that sometimes, like, even in Little Freak, he's writing about maybe some slightly melancholy nostalgia. But it's not that melancholy. It's not, he's not jealous and hurt in this situation enough so that he can, he can, he can,

can't think about this person with someone else and even care. So there's, but I think the lyrics in that song are really beautiful. But it's, it's just not, like, he's not aching all that much. Why would he be? Life's pretty good. Well, right. That's right. I mean, he's drinking 1982 Bordeaux. It is massive house. And having hash browns. and hash and, you know, making out with whoever he wants. Look, lyrically, the problem that I have, this is just my own thing, okay? So this is not actually something that anybody else would criticize. But you know that I have a real irrational fear of straws.

And it's good. You do. Oh, no. A real irrational fear of straws. And I also have an irrational fear of like somebody sticking chewing gum on the ground or on it. Like I get so grossed out by it. And I think it's mouth trash is the work that I've been on myself. I'm just, yeah, I really, I hate mouth trash.

And so hitting me on music for a sushi restaurant with blue bubble gum twisted round your tongue. Blue bubble gun twist in a time It really I'm not even going to say the M word that you referenced earlier because I think there are some people for whom we have to actually

give a warning before we say it but that's the way that that that phrase hit me so bad it just terrifies me so that's my least favorite lyric on the album to say the least please no more mouth trash Harry Styles I know I'm going there

but is this also why stuck between my teeth bothers you? You got it. No more mouth trash here. Please keep it away. Oh, wow. I can't wait for the day that shows up in the Oxford English Dictionary. But listen.

Have we ever, have we talked about, I know we've talked about your fear of straws on social media some. Just in case, just because I would like, no, I don't want to talk about this. If we'd never truly explained it on the pod, Nathan and I got smoothies in Los Angeles a while back. And we're leaving the smoothie place. And we each have a smoothie in hand and I grab a straw.

Nathan, do you want a straw? And he goes, oh no. I'm afraid of straws. And proceeds to just like gulp his smoothie the entire time because you're terrified of straws. If I like, if I brandished to, straw at you, you would sort of, you would jump back in discomfort. Every superhero has weakness, Nora.

My kryptonite is mouth trash. First and foremost among them, straws. Okay. Well, at some point we're going to have to grade the types of mouth trash by how scary they are to you. But for now, we have to grade this album. Where do you end up? I want to hear.

You want me to go first? Yeah, I really do actually. I wound up at a B plus. Wow. Wow. That's why I wanted you to go first. I knew you were going to surprise me. I wound up at a B plus.

Talk to me. I think it's really good. I think it's really fun to listen to. It's not fine line for you. You like fine line better. Yes. I definitely like fine fine line better. I am seeing a lot of, oh, this is,

his best album by far. I don't agree with those reviews. Yeah, I don't either. I think Fine Line... Not because this album is good. And I don't agree with them in part because I... No, I think this album is really, really good. It's just disrespectful to Fine Line.

Yeah. I also, I really... And I'm curious because I'm curious to see where he goes from here just because he's not necessarily acting in a way that makes me think that he agrees. But I see... I think he has the spirit of a pop star more than that of someone whose real medium

is storytelling through music. Yeah. And I just would really, really hate to undersell the, both the pop elements of Fine Line that I think are just

really, really excellent. And then also the fact that he did, somebody did get him to cry in a room once or twice. We need to, we need to lock him in there for a little bit longer.

But yeah. Oh, certainly on Fine Line. Yeah. So, yes, out of respect to Fine Line, but also because I'm going to listen to this album all summer and there are songs from it that I'm going to listen to and on and on and on. It's a B plus.

It's a really good album. We agree, Nora. This is a rare thing. Yeah, I think it's a B plus. But it's like trending to A minus for me. And I think that you, you could have a bunch of people over and put this on and just let it go. You can put it on in the car and just let it go.

Totally. Yeah. And so this could have been the album that sent him absolutely artistically into the stratosphere. And I think that's the point that you're making around. He's a pop star more so than a singer-songwriter. I don't think there's anything wrong with that or bad with that. I think his live performance is and his sort of public persona is what's going to keep him in the headlines. this album could have gone very poorly for him, right?

If he had made something that just didn't connect or was sort of, you know, suddenly it would have, it could have been catastrophic. This, it does not keep him from making a holy shit, the emotional depth of the songwriting is incredible. Like, that's going to be the album, if he can write that, that wins him the Grammy, for sure. This is a great next thing.

does not sound like fine line. It is fun as hell. And it keeps his career on the trajectory that is up and to the right. But I don't think this thing is going to go down in the pantheon of,

you know, great, unbelievable albums. But it also doesn't disrupt his career. And there was, there was an opportunity to screw this one up. I think they did take some chances on this.

Yeah, no, I do too. I think this could, if Harry has the career that I, I think we both think he could and makes 10 plus albums and just gets to have all these different musical lives

and it's all really, really great. I would bet that this ends up being one of the albums that the true fans are like, no, you got to spend more time with Harry's house. Like, trust me, Harry's house is like really, really where it's at. That album rules. Yeah. I think it's a great album.

It's super fun. they're just, it doesn't get the A for me only because there were some choruses that I wanted to take me over the top that didn't. But there are some songs on here that I'm going to listen to again and again and again. And I also think that as a sort of front to back thing, it's a real album. That was always our complaint about the One Direction canon, right? Is that it really isn't, those aren't really albums. They're collections of songs. This feels like, as did Finline. a cohesive comprehensive album. As did Harry Stiles, I think. I think he's always made albums and paid attention to the format as a specific choice and been pretty successful in that. The other thing that I will say that if maybe this is trending up from a B plus to an A minus,

another feather in its cap is that it does wear the influences. You're hearing a ton of 80s, right? And that is very clear. And, you know, there's the take on me in as it was. And there's a couple of those moments. Yeah. But it wears it a little bit more mildly. Yeah.

Here. There are fewer hooks and melodies where you're going, it sounds good. But Harry, that's not really yours. I really, this is his. And another reason I do think that he gets a lot of and deserves a good amount of sort of benefit of the doubt is because I also really believe that this is the album that he wanted to make. And so there's something very comforting about hearing something and trusting, like, oh, he's

really happy with this. And these are the choices that made him feel good about these songs and good about this record. And that is automatically a more interesting journey to be on with a star with an artist than someone who's sort of just trying to see which way the wind is blowing. So I support a little bit of a little bit of the rosiness around this just because I really do believe that even when it's coming from a place of being sort of protective about some of the raw emotions that I'm guessing he has that I would be interested to hear more often in his music. I think he genuinely wants to protect that. And at a certain point, it's hard to argue with when as long as you think that it's authentic.

Harry Styles is a lot of fun, and so is this album. And so is this podcast. And so is getting to talk with you about albums and artists and songs. And just what a pleasure is always, Nathan. Thank you, Nora. Less mouth trash in 2023. That's the goal. This has been every single album, Harry Styles.

As always, I'm Nora Pintziati. He's Nathan Hubbard. Dr. Taylor Swift, please do us a favor and drop 1989 Taylor's version so that we can get back on the mic and talk to you all soon. As always, thank you to the wonderful Kai McMullen for her production help on this episode and on this series as well. Thanks, guys.