Harry's House

Harry’s House was constructed board by board, and, ultimately, it’s a lovely place to spend time in. Styles is making the music he wants to make.

Styles has put together an album that's so solid, even moments that would be cringeworthy when handled by lesser pop stars feel earned. ... Harry's House is also emotionally heavy at times, with Styles' understated delivery adding power to his plainspoken lyrics.

Harry's House is what happens when Styles steps out of the spotlight to live his life. And despite the fact that there's nothing as immortal as "Watermelon Sugar" to be found, this album, as a whole, has solid bones and is sturdy enough to last.

On an album that, through its title, implies intimacy and solitude, Styles shows there are no four walls that can contain him.

Harry’s House pleasantly surprised us—knocked us off our feet actually—with its synth-layered earworms.

Styles finally sounds at home in his role as a pop megastar. Settling in nicely on Harry's House, he manages to hit a sweet spot in between One Direction breakout star and modern-day rocker.

Although Harry’s House is mostly composed of downtempo but somehow not depressing beats, this is where the record finds its hook. Despite all of us and the world constantly changing, all we have is whatever and wherever we call home. With this record, Styles is inviting us into his.

Ultimately Styles is more concerned with mood than minutiae. On Harry’s House he’s created a welcoming place to stay.

His lyrical approach has actually grown more idiosyncratic. It could be hard to glean much of a sense of Styles’ inner life from his early stuff, but these songs are rich with vivid and intimate details.

Harry’s House reinforces Styles’ signature sensitivity in an authentic way and shows he’s more than earned his place as one of music’s most innovative artists. More importantly, he reminds us that he’s a pop star playing by his own rules—and he’s here for the long haul.

Harry’s House is a heavyweight pop release that feels understated and lightweight. It threatens to give everything about Styles away and strip back his starkest emotions, but leaves it still ever so slightly cloaked in mystery. We’re closer than ever before to truly understanding Styles the person, but he still keeps us ever so slightly at arm’s length. Styles, the artist, the pop auteur, though is far more clear.

He sounds in command of his voice on this record in a way that he hadn’t yet reached in his past two releases. While truly every track on Harry’s House has something to admire and embrace, the ninth song, “Daydreaming,” is a standout for one simple reason: Styles uses a sample for the very first time.

A body of work that will bring more comfort to longtime fans of his like a big fat hug around the middle, it’s packed with enough pop chops to rattle stadium floors, and dominate the kitchen radios of the casual listener for a while to come yet.

‘Harry’s House’ is undoubtedly Styles’ best record yet and presents a musician comfortable and confident in what he wants to create right now.

As ‘Harry’s House’ flings open the doors of its party garage, Styles navigates this confusing emotional territory with a funk shuffle and future soul panache worthy of the Purple One himself.

In ‘Harry’s House’ lives a songwriter confident enough in both to start playing with convention.

This is music with a big, gleeful smile on its face. And it is accompanied by clever and compassionate lyrics.

He’s pulled off the neat trick of making his music at once elegant and more refined but also warmer and more intimate — the polished-marble smoothness of Steely Dan with the generosity of an Al Green or Yo La Tengo record.

Harry’s House is extremely well turned out, ticks a lot of the right boxes and has abundant charm, which makes it a perfect reflection of the pop star who made it.

It’s all put together under one roof in a neat, unassuming way, made refreshing and palatable by his persona.

So what if Harry’s House isn’t especially bold; innovation is not a requirement of a solid pop album, and working too hard is out of fashion, anyway. Better to slip on your Gucci pajamas and just enjoy.

Harry’s House is a good album because it doesn’t care if you think so. It's not trying to appease the male critics chained to the altar of classic rock, and it isn’t showering you in glitter and hauling you onto the dance floor (even though you are still cordially invited).

“Harry’s House” is a light, fun, summery pop record, but there is a gaping void as its center; by its end, the listener is inclined to feel more intimately acquainted with the objects of his affections than the internal world of the titular character himself.

The album both sees Styles cementing his status as music’s premier sensitive, shy guy and growing comfortable enough within the pop idiom that he inhabits to push against it—but only ever so slightly. Styles may be a fashion trendsetter, but with Harry’s House, he continues trying on different styles in an effort to discover his own.