Harry Styles – Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally Review 

Harry Styles has slipped from the pop mainstream. That was, it seems, a choice. He makes no claim to the throne again. Styles has read the room on what people want from the genre, and he knows he cannot provide it at this time. But he must provide a reminder of his existence, and that’s all Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally offers. It was time for a reminder of the Watermelon Sugar singer’s existence, nothing more. He has been rightly ridiculed for breaching into a space where there is no elbow room for him. Spiralling between heartless adaptations of David Byrne dance moves, LCD Soundsystem-like instrumental stylings and playing catch-up to the aesthetic values found in alternative rock two years before his return to the studio, it feels as though Styles has lost his way. He was never an influence within the genre, but a contemporary analyst of what worked. Harry’s House at least felt like a warm welcome into his life, faux it may have been. Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, cannot even mount that fake goodwill, despite the tempo change on its lead single. 

Aperture is the high point for this fourth studio album, then, and it wasn’t all that great when it comes to the longevity Styles must bank on with his music. A fine change of direction, but it was never going to work because he sounds so non-committal to any new sound. Now the dust has settled, it seems as though Aperture is propelled more by the sudden return than the quality of the song. There is much to love about the off-kilter sound made by Styles as he finds himself in opposition to his previous style, but it never comes across as genuine. His lyrical intent is still lost in the mix, and the aesthetic choices made is another example of Styles as a follower, rather than a founder of new genre undertakings. He does not have to be the latter, but when he’s so far behind what alternative pop is now offering, it’s hard to find the purpose. Distorted piano, that tinnitus-inducing crackle to life on Aperture follow-up, American Girls, is nothing special. Sam Fender was doing that five years ago, and with style.  

Irrespective of which artist has done what before, it never feels as though Styles is trying to be his true self. His messages and meanings are not obscure, just absent behind a wall of synth bits and pieces dragged into the studio to give his pop fundamentals the sentiment of change. But change is as change does, and Styles is still writing and recording songs of limited narrative scope because to add another layer is to dare and challenge his listeners. God forbid they process their thoughts further. Intimacy without the interest is what now defines Styles. Are You Listening Yet? makes the fatal error of putting his lyrics at the forefront. Stadium fodder is what he has at hand, and that’s no surprise. So why, then, is it a surprise to hear Styles shift from the contemporary pop structure? Because nobody expected it of him – the standard for his instrumental variance is that low.  

Vaguely nice instrumental loops and beats are what Styles offers here. He is redundant in his own work. Instrumentally, it’s a nice and focused piece of work which has no use for his lyrics or on-stage nature. Soppy additions on Coming Up Roses play into the predictable tone Styles is adept at, as is everyone else working in pop. In predictability is familiarity, and Styles banks on that throughout Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. The inspirational tone, the bettering yourself because to be better is to be right, all those pop-adjacent messages which can be filtered through irrespective of artist, they’re all here and aren’t adapted all that well. Styles has not offered his listeners anything but what they expected, and that will be enough for his millions of fans. But there should be a challenge to the tone, as there was all too briefly on Aperture, a song which echoes what was lost when Styles began writing predictable, dullard words to strong-sounding songs.