Harry Styles, former member of One Direction, has returned with his fourth studio album “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” The lead single “Aperture” showcased a different style from his previous pop-centered works, utilizing an alternative spin on progressive house, completely new for Styles. The record ends up falling back into Harry’s signature pop style as it goes on, with added dance textures, making the experience unique for a Harry Styles album overall.
The song “Aperture” opens the album, expanding over five minutes and progressing quite nicely, setting a good tone for the album, but sadly, the very next song kills all of that momentum, with “American Girls” being so incredibly bland and different from “Aperture.” The next two tracks keep the same energy and tone of “American Girls,” but the middle of the tracklist is where the album really picks up in terms of quality and production. “Taste Back,” “The Waiting Game,” and “Pop” are major highlights of this record and show the true potential this album could have had. “Coming Up Roses” was a nice change in pace, with Harry being accompanied by an orchestra who played a beautiful backing track for the entire song. The album rounds off with “Carla’s Song,” a satisfying closer for an alright album.
“I did not like it very much, to me it promised a lot and left the listener with not much to sink their teeth into,” said Carter Parsons, a junior at Wadsworth High School.
The big problem with this album lies within the so-called “disco” elements of the album. The album cover and lead single led listeners to believe that this album was going to lean into disco and progressive house but that ended up being completely false. There was very little disco or house at all, besides “Aperture” and other parts of the album sparingly. The album cover is also very misleading with there being an alternative style along with a disco ball, just for it to end up as another basic pop album with a little bit of experimentation.
“I thought that the new album was refreshing,” said junior Connor McNeill. “Harry went back to synth and 80’s style music with this one and I did enjoy that, however I think some of the vocals were a bit lacking, and I really only found myself enjoying one or two songs, while the rest were just alright.”
Overall, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally” is a record that had quite a bit of potential but ended up falling flat after the first track essentially. There was a little bit of variation in the middle of the record with songs like “Taste Back” and “Pop” but overall the entire album was a standard mainstream pop release that gives listeners no reason to give the record a full listen.
