“I don’t know these spaces,” Harry Styles repeats in the bridge of ‘Aperture,’ the first single from Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. After the overexposure he suffered as a teenager, Styles seems uncomfortable with the confinement of his own fame. He disappears for years, returning occasionally with something a little different to what he’s explored before.
Styles says this new album was inspired in part by seeing LCD Soundsystem perform, and the sparse instrumental fits that anecdote — just a drone, a glitching synth, and a bassline pulse. It’s a stark departure from the acoustic guitar plucks and sombre piano chords heard across his three prior albums. The absence of his live band makes the darkness of the song more melancholic and formless, but the way it grows and closes around you feels intimate and placid. It’s dance music, but it’s quiet and lonely and looks inwards. The accelerating synths carry a lot of the emotional lift, contrasting with his defeated vocal delivery.
‘Aperture’ isn’t a traditional lead single; there’s no obvious hook to latch onto. It’s more mood piece than anthem, but if it’s an honest representation of his new album, it could make for his best work.
“Harry Styles Denver HsLot” by Lovclyhes is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
