The reason guys wear pearl necklaces and a lot of girls are in credit card debt made his comeback this week. I am of course referring to Harry Edward Styles, the man who made me obsessed with men.
The former One Directioner released his first single, “Aperture,” since his 2022 Grammy-award-winning album Harry’s House yesterday at midnight GMT (thank god he’s acknowledging he’s British again) to much fanfare. It’s off his forthcoming album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. A title he explained by likening it to “Water All The Time. Pee, Occasionally.” on BBC Radio 1. Illuminating as always, Harry!
Before Harry announced the new album, it was hard to imagine what his return to work might look like. When his years long tour ended he’d reached new heights of fame, something that felt like an impossibility after One Direction, and was fresh off of the fiasco that was Don’t Worry Darling.
More than his sound — which I will get into — I was most curious about where his look could go after his era-defining Fine Line and Harry’s House outfits. His presentation of a modern man is the one space where Harry actually innovates — which can be attributed to his stylist Harry Lambert. During COVID and the years immediately following all the actors and pop boys copied him. But as Love on Tour finally wrapped up and the feathers at 34th Street-Penn Station disappeared, new male style icons emerged. Paul Mescal in his short shorts, The Dare in his indie sleaze suit, Role Model in his perfectly tailored jeans and tees, etc. Jacob Elordi once cited Harry as his style inspiration, but now Jacob is other boys’ style inspiration.
During his break, Harry dressed like some guy with a mustache. For the first time since One Direction he looked ordinary.
So far in his return to public life, Harry went in the one direction left for him: casual. On the album cover of KATTDO he’s in jeans and a tee shirt. He wears a similar outfit in the “Aperture” promotional photo. Elsewhere, he appears in sweaters over kitschy printed button-downs.
Like his single, "Aperture," his look is an amalgamation of references and I can’t yet see Harry in it, but I might just not know him anymore.
In the past couple of years all we know he’s been doing is walking around and stumbling into situations. But with the release of “Aperture,” he’s starting to color those walks. He attended the announcement of the new Pope because he was “a five minute walk away” and couldn’t parallel park that fan’s car because “the spot was too small.”
With just one listen to “Aperture” you can tell what else he was up to: going to LCD Soundsystem shows. He’s forgoing his strengths as an artist to be cool, cool in a way all artists his age want to be.
Oh Harry, why didn’t you listen to Mitski in 2017 when she wrote, “When the music behind the voice on Harry Styles is derived from such a heavily referenced time, I can’t help but take it for granted and look to the words for something meaningful, even equally iconic as the canon it’s inspired by, something that rings true today the way “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” pierced hearts in 1965.”
He’s traded in the 60s and 70s for the 2000s, but the problem remains. On Harry Styles, and Mitski acknowledges this, there were transcendent lyrical moments where the person behind the pop star emerged. I can only hope the same can be said for Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, so we can get to know this new Harry.
THE ODYSSEY BEGINS: The Rip press tour is giving us a sneak peek at what kind of bullshit videos Matt Damon will be doing in promotion of The Odyssey. For now Matt and Ben’s beautiful friendship and chemistry outshine the ridiculousness of subjecting these two fifty-plus-year-old men to viral clip bait to get us to press play on a little movie on Netflix. But as soon as Matt is alone, the horrors of the current media landscape creep in. Yes, I am talking about The Matt Damon going on New Heights. And no, I can’t talk about it anymore.
JOE KEERY ROCKS: I loved this Q&A with Joe in Vulture where he acknowledges that the money from Stranger Things funded his music career. He couldn’t be an independent artist without it and we wouldn’t have gotten “End of Beginning.” It reminds me of how MJ Lenderman credits his success as an artist to pandemic era state unemployment, because it was the first time he could focus on his music instead of making money. In this moment, I really appreciate that sort of financial transparency.
ALTAR BOYS AT THE OSCARS: Jacob Elordi is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for being the only redeeming part of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Timothee Chalamet nominated for Best Actor for Marty Supreme. If he should win, Timmy’s acceptance speech could make or break his Altar Boy status.
As promised, here is the solution to the Altar Boys crossword puzzle.
