Harry Styles’ Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally

Styles kicks off his first album in four years with the album’s pre-release single, “Aperture,” a synth-filled, nearly six-minute game of push and pull. “It’s best you know what you don’t / Aperture lets the light in,” Styles croons on the pre-chorus before diving into the song’s main message: “We belong together /
It finally appears it’s only love.”

“Aperture” sets listeners up for an album that at-once feels right at home in Styles’ discography and a bit of a departure. Lyrically and sonically, it’s one of the calmer songs on the album, even if it leans much more into the disco vibe than a majority of the album. The dichotomy within the song — a bit sad yet still a bit hopeful — perfectly sets the tone of Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, which, at first glance, shows Styles self-reflecting in a way he hasn’t before.

Admittedly, the most surface level offering on the album, this melodic, windows-down-on-the-PCH track is a true sonic blend of his past albums. It feels as though Styles was hoping to ease fans back into his world with “American Girls.” Think of it as a warmup for what’s to come. “My friends are in love with American girls / I’ve seen it in stages all over the world / My friends are in love with American girls,” he cheekily sings on the song’s chorus. It’s catchy and fun, but given how interesting the rest of the album is, it’s unlikely to be at the top of anyone’s list.

This dreamy pop-rock track is where Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally really starts to pick up. Styles opts for a for a funky vocal effect on the song’s chorus. It’s catchy enough that listeners will likely find themselves singing the chorus back to themselves with lyrics like, “One time in the light, it’s two times’ as fun already.”

Well, are you listening yet? Perhaps it’s looking too much into things — even if Styles has never seemed like someone to do things on accident — but the placement of this frenetic, guitar-heavy track feels like the singer checking the listener’s pulse at this point of the album. Pay attention, he’s seemingly saying. “Now you’re all out of choices / Are you listening yet?” he sings. The funky, borderline spoken-word verses set over a guitar beat make this song enjoyable and memorable.

It’s feeling very 2008 at this point in the album, with Styles’ most spiritually Vampire Weekend-esque offering to date. The song’s overall message seems to revolve around love, and needing a bit more of it. The bridge is, undoubtedly, a standout moment of the track, but the lyrics also make the song work: “Where’d you find the confidence to call me baby?” and “Must be lonely out in Paris if you talk like that” just to share a couple.

The album’s sixth track offers a bit of a slower pace with some interesting synth-pop moments. There’s plenty of ways to interpret this song, but it feels perhaps a bit of self-reflection on Styles as celebrity personality. “You can romanticize your shortcomings / Ignore your agency to stop / Write a ballad with the details / While skimming off the top,” could surely be about anyone, but the song feels like it has a bit more weight if those moments of introspection are intentional. Also, the song’s outro is beautiful.

The song title I was most perplexed by, “Season 2 Weight Loss” features electro-pop opening with a distorted voice effect in the beginning. We seem to be finding Styles embracing trippy vocal effort across Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. It sits amongst a segment of groovier songs on the album. “Let light come in once in a while / You’ve got to sit yourself down sometimes,” stands out as a lyric to remember.

This track is one of the most romantic and grand in scale on the album. With its waltz beat, it would serve as the perfect soundtrack to the grand gesture moment of any romance film. It’s the most unique song on the album, simply because it deviates away from the established sonic formula and goes more stripped back. It also sits in the middle of the album’s most disco forward tracks.

Throughout the entirety of Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, “Pop” is a top-two contender for most fun you’ll have, and it’s among the more disco and synth-pop tracks on the record. It’s definitely the song most likely to get stuck in your head, with echoes of “pop!” littered throughout the song.

Sonically speaking, this downright groovy track pays off the promise of disco-infused tracks laid out by “Aperture.” The song has it all — catchy lyrics, a dynamite outro and rock-laced beat. It’s not clear what Styles next single will be, but “Dance No More” should definitely be in contention.

Styles slows it down with an acoustic guitar for the penultimate track of the album. “Paint By Numbers” is another reflective track — the song’s opening lyric is “Oh, what a gift it is to be noticed.” It’s exactly the kind of song one would envision when hearing an artist spent time leisurely traveling beforehand. It also feels like through this song, Styles himself is showcasing a calmer side of himself.

The British pop star closes the album much like he starts it — in a dreamy space in between meloncoly and hopefulness. But the decision to end on this track feels important. Styles last words of the album are pitch perfect with the tone of the work overall — “I know what you like, you can hear it anytime.”