Ahead of the release on Friday (March 6), the reviews are in for Harry Styles‘s new album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.
It marks the singer’s first album release in four years after his 2022 record Harry’s House, which went on to win Album of the Year at the 2023 Grammys.
We’ve already gotten a taste with Styles’s first single, Aperture, released in January, which delivered minimalist electronic LCD Soundsystem-inspired sound with dance and house influences.
So it’s fair to say that everyone is intrigued to see what the rest of the project will sound like.
What are critics saying?
All in all, Styles’s Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. has received widely favourable reviews ranging between three and four stars, with the general consensus being that it’s a vibes record, with some criticism over its lyrical depth.
The Independent’s Roisin O’Connor gave the album four stars and wrote, “By stepping away for a minute, allowing any fears of getting left behind to cease, Styles has been able to return with newfound clarity and, more importantly, music that actually sounds like him. He let the light in, and it shows.”
“Largely, Styles taking a new approach to things really works – ‘Kiss All The Time…’ feels like an album that you’ll really want to spend a lot of time with, letting all its layers envelope you,” said NME’s Rhian Daly, also giving the album four stars.
Billboard‘s Sophe Williams wrote, “As much as he’s dominated the mainstream over the past few years, Styles appears to be following some fresh curiosities and crafting new sounds that feel uncharted for him. The results are uneven in places, but perhaps that’s what makes them so compelling.”
“The music on Styles’s new album is muted, subtle and pleasant – but from the title downwards, he has a real problem with words,” said The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis in his three-star review. “Painting everything in muted shades is a risk that intermittently pays off. On the plus side, it gives what’s here a unified atmosphere.”
The Telegraph’s Neil McCormick, in his three-star review, commented, “With feather-light melodies, gauzy synths and sketchily oblique references to ‘perfect lighting’, sessions with ‘well-fed’ therapists, elegant hangovers and dining on ‘your favourite pastries’, it sometimes sounds like an episode of Emily in Paris set to sub bass and cool beats.”
“A little more than halfway through this delightfully strange, often lovely, and consistently fascinating album, things get downright freaky, at least musically speaking,” Rolling Stone’s Joe Levy said, giving the album four stars. He later added, “This is music more invested in being than meaning, experience rather than ego.”
Elsewhere from Indy100, Harry Styles album release week – every upcoming event he has planned, and Harry Styles’ Manchester gig to land on Netflix – everything we know.
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