Wherever I go
“Wherever you go, there you are”
Out of all of the twists and turns and unexpected outcomes, I never prepared myself for the fact that Harry Styles would write and create one of the most sincere responses to the pandemic. Harry’s House is exactly that and so much more. We’ve had this music for one year. 365 days of living with these melodies and lyrics. In so many ways this album felt like finding the sunlight on our faces after years of separation. It truly felt like coming home.
Harry Styles has always made good music, but this album in particular feels more intentional. This album is sonically playful, dipping into funk, r&b, and even a bit of 90’s grunge. Lyrically, it’s more experimental than Harry has ever been. He minimizes his diaristic, confessional writing, and instead uses symbolism, metaphors, and broad strokes on concepts and emotions and it works so well. Rather than isolating an audience by doing this, he brings us in even closer. This kind of lyric writing allows us to make our own space, or rooms for ourselves at Harry’s House. The vocal lines and melodies in this album are refined and slick, solidifying Harry’s legacy as an impeccable storyteller in music.
While this is Harry’s third album, it feels like the true ethos of Harry Styles was discovered and crystallized in Fine Line. In “Treat People with Kindness”, his own personal motto turned into track 11 on the album, the opening lyrics are “Maybe we can find a place to feel good”. That is the Harry Styles’ ethos, finding a place to feel good. So many fans talk about how Harry is their “comfort artist”, or they can talk for hours about how his shows feel safe and accepting. I think that’s one major part of why his music and his personal brand resonates with so many people, he’s an artist that’s here to offer us community, safety, and warmth. He’s here to ask us how we take our tea, while also offering us a blanket and turning off the big light in the room.
What’s so impressive about Harry’s House, is that it offers that kind of warmth, while also unpacking and processing so many of the lingering traumas from the pandemic. Loneliness, anxiety, self medicating, heartbreak, and estrangement are all heavy topics that Harry handles with a gentle hand. This album feels like a safe place to process these feelings.
This dichotomy is also perfectly represented in the album artwork.
Life is upside down, literally and Harry stands on the ceiling, wearing an outfit that can only be described as baby girl. It’s a soft, warm image, while also speaking volumes about how we all felt during our quarantine stays. Everything was upside down and we’re left trying to figure it all out from our living rooms. What I love most about this image, is that it’s not hopeless. It’s saturated in warm light, there are flowers and breakfast waiting for us- Harry is always the first one to remind us that there is always joy to be found. Joy is the ever present theme in Harry’s music and joy is the wallpaper that coats Harry’s House. Unlike other pandemic albums, Harry’s House is full of celebration. We get effervescent, volcanic songs like “Music for a Sushi Restaurant”, sexy vintage longing with “Late Night Talking”, and the ultimate dance fever disco funk bop of “Daydreaming”. Harry is the first to help us find the light, to help us feel less alone.
I know it’s incredibly cliche to say, but truly, every time I listen to this album I find something new about it that I love. I understand a lyric in a new way, I catch a glimmer of a background harmony, I finally hear a specific instrument, or I find a new question that I want answers to and it makes my heart spin in my chest. This music is rich with detail and purpose. The song “Satellite” literally creates a satellite through the music by panning the sound from the right to the left ear (creating a satellite with the music). Satellite also uses a clavinet, which harkens back to Bach. “Keep Driving” a song that embodies anxieties and uncertainties of the world around us features a glockenspiel. The only other song that Harry has released that also uses the glockenspiel is “Golden” from Fine Line, which was also a song that was inspired by driving. Parallels, or weird serendipitous moments? “Matilda” is easily the most emotionally charged song on the album, and you can connect the thread from “Matilda” to other songs on his albums (I’d argue “Cherry” and “From the Dinging Table”), what is it about Harry Styles and an acoustic guitar ballad that rearranges my very fucking DNA? The song that skyrocketed his success, “As it Was” is the perfect dissonant track to describe the duality of the pandemic. It has a peppy beat and synths, but incredibly conflicted lyrics and melancholic vocals. But at the end of the song, there are bells. Church bells, much like the tubular bells played in the song, mark the passage of time. They chime at the turn of the hour. They also mark change in our lives, ringing with events like weddings and funerals. And here they are at the end of this song and propelling us to dance. Things won’t be the same, but that doesn’t mean they will be worse. Birds, bicycles, and trampolines are symbols that he uses on this album that evoke innocence and purity, while wine, eggs, and pop(corn) represent sexuality. There is so much here that begs for curious listening from the audience.
I was listening to a podcast for creatives recently, and the host mentioned how “you art what you eat”, meaning the art that you consume is then reflected in the art you create. Everything is just a remix of something that came before, but the things that you like, the art that you like informs the art you make. If I can make something that holds half the amount of forethought, detail, joy, and tenderness as a Harry Styles’ album, I’ve cracked the code kids. Get in the car, I’m buying an island.
The lead up to Harry’s House was marked by a genius social media campaign that would release different doors everyday on a website called youarehome. Everyday the door would reveal something different. One day, it was a puzzle. The next a bundle of grapes, or cups of coffee. These doors were giving us glimpses into Harry’s House. Intimate vignettes of a life. That’s what this album is at it’s core, it’s an offering of home.
This album has truly been a good friend. I love that this album has been so gentle with me. It’s colored my life in amber light, enveloping me in the most delicious kind of warmth. In so many ways, this album feels like it brought us back. Things were opening up, mandates were lifted, but we were still so far apart. And then this album happened. And we had new reasons to dance, to cry, to sing. It’s been softly playing in the background of the biggest and most intimate moments of my life. My friends listened to it as they got ready for their wedding day. It was the first vinyl they bought for themselves when they moved in together to their first home. It’s played in our apartment on Sunday mornings as my wife and I drink coffee and talk about our dreams. It’s been the soundtrack to countless kitchen floor dance parties. On a random weeknights, if our windows are open, I can hear our downstairs neighbors playing it as they clean their apartment. I like that we share this music together, without knowing one another. I’ve taken this album on roadtrips, playing it front to back again and again as we drive on flat midwestern roads with the sky punctuated by billboards. I hear it playing in bars, restaurants, and even grocery stores and every time I catch it, it feels like I’ve caught an angel number in musical form. A little sign from the universe that I’m safe and on the right path. I’ll take this album with me everywhere I go, and in turn, that means home is wherever I go.
Happy first birthday to the album that brought us back.