Where has Harry Styles been? Not where you might expect. He popped up at the Vatican when they announced the new pope, rubbed shoulders with locals at bars in Rome, and was even filmed trying (emphasis on trying) to help a fan park their car. Since concluding his last world tour in 2023 he’s also pressed pause on a hit-and-miss acting career, lost a central figure in former bandmate Liam Payne, who died aged 31 in 2024, and revealed how a reset in Italy over summer gave him a newfound perspective on life: “I remember going to a café and sitting and having a coffee and thinking, ‘I don’t remember the last time I sat down and had a coffee – if I’ve ever sat down and just had a coffee,’” he recalled. Now he’s back: in the charts and on billboards. After a triumphant performance at the Brits, he returns with a new album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally… ready to be recrowned our pop king. “Let light come in once in a while,” he sings.
La dolce vita certainly has its place on this album, perhaps Styles’s most playful, bold and experimental to date. He sounds relaxed; there’s none of the self-consciousness that’s plagued him in the past, when he was trying to be the millennial answer to David Bowie. The former One Direction star is also the most vulnerable he’s ever been, exploring his feelings around relationships, adulthood, the loss of innocence. It opens with “Aperture”, the single he released in January. It’s the perfect scene-setter, a dizzying, euphoric dance track layered with lush harmonies and a pulsing synth beat that spins around like a strobe light. “Go forth, ask questions later,” he commands.
