Harry's House is the third studio album by the English singer and songwriterHarry Styles, released on 20 May 2022 byErskine andColumbia Records. The album was largely written and recorded during 2020 and 2021 and has been noted as Styles' most introspective work. Inspired by 1970s Japanesecity pop,Harry's House is asynth-pop,new wave,pop rock andpop-funk album.
The album debuted with the best first-week sales in Styles' career. It debuted at number one on theUK Albums Chart with 113,000album-equivalent units, becoming the fastest-selling and best-selling album of 2022 in the country. It also debuted at number one on the USBillboard 200 with 521,500 album-equivalent units, including 330,000 album sales. It debuted at number one in various other countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
In an interview withApple Music, Styles explained how he came up with the album title: "The album is named afterHaruomi Hosono, he had an album in the'70s calledHosono's House [sic], and I spent that chunk in Japan; I heard that record and I was like 'I love that.[...] It'd be really fun to make a record calledHarry's House'."[1] The initial idea behind the album came when Styles wanted to take the title in a literal way so he could make an acousticextended play recorded at his own house.[1] The album is considered Styles's most introspective of his career thus far; according to Styles the central concept of 'house' is a metaphor for the inside of his mind rather than a "geographical location". Speaking on the album's concept, Styles said "It was much more of an internal thing… [and] it felt like it took on this whole new meaning and it was about, like: imagine, it's a day in my house, what do I go through? A day in my mind, what do I go through? In my house I'm playing fun music, sad music, I'm playing this, I'm playing that. It's a day in the life."[2] Styles was also inspired by aroad trip he took throughItaly in his deceased stepfather's car, where Styles listened to his oldjazzCDs and "felt like [he] did a family thing" while on the drive.[1]
The album was largely written and recorded during 2020 and 2021. "Boyfriends", however, was initially written during the final week ofFine Line (2019) recording.[3][4] Speaking toZane Lowe, Styles said of the track: "Boyfriends was written right at the end ofFine Line. I finished the album and we touched on it a last time, there was like an extra week to write some stuff. I recorded "Adore You", "Treat People With Kindness", and "Lights Up" […] and at the end of that session everyone left, and I started writing "Boyfriends" and it almost felt like "Ok, there's a version where we get this ready to put on [Fine Line]", and I think there was something about that just felt like "It's just gonna have its time, so like, let's not rush to get it done." And we did so many versions of it."[1] MusicianBen Harper is credited playing the guitar on the track and had to ask for the guitar he gifted his daughter back to borrow to play it on the song.[1] "Boyfriends" lyrically discusses the experience of romantic relationships in which "people don't treat each other very nicely sometimes" that Styles observed in his sister and friends when dating other people as well as his own experiences with dating.
"Little Freak" was also initially written in 2019 during Styles' trip toTokyo. Producer Kid Harpoon in an interview withRolling Stone stated the track was "actually produced and mixed in a whole different version forFine Line, but it just didn't feel right."[5] The track was written and made in a hotel room in Tokyo on "bad rental gear" according to Styles and went through many iterations before reaching the final product.[6] In the album's liner notes, the song is partially credited as being recorded in 'Tom's Room', referring to Kid Harpoon.[7]
The first song to be written for the album sessions was "Late Night Talking", which was written the day Styles, the band and the producers arrived atShangri-La studios inMalibu.[3] "Music For A Sushi Restaurant" was written early in the album process and originally considered to be the album title.[8] Speaking toNPR, Styles said "I was in a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles with my producer and one of our songs came on from the last album, and I kind of said like, this is really strange music for a sushi restaurant. And then I was like, oh, that would be a really fun album title. And then as this as this - as the songs started being made, I kind of just said "Music For A Sushi Restaurant."[8]
"Matilda" is titled afterthe lead character froma book of the same name, written byRoald Dahl. The song was inspired by a relationship Styles had with someone who was going through difficulty. In an interview withZane Lowe, Styles stated he wrote the song to show he was listening: "Sometimes it's just about listening. I hope that's what I did here. If nothing else, it just says, 'I was listening to you'".[9] "Daylight" was written as an all-nighter project as Styles was worried the track would not be finished otherwise.[1] Styles stated the song was about "an infatuation of chasing troubled things.”[10]
"Cinema" was Styles's "fun" track which he started writing while being on atreadmill.[1] The album featuresJohn Mayer onlead guitar on both "Cinema" and "Daydreaming".[11] Of "Daydreaming", Styles' collaborator Tyler Johnson first sent Styles a voice note while he was driving from Palm Springs to LA called 'idea on the 101 rough' that kickstarted the track.[12] Mayer was working in the studio across the corridor from Styles and Styles asked him to listen to the song for a breakdown section, he grabbed one of Mitch Rowland's guitars and played to the track.[10]
"Love of My Life" is Styles's way of showing his love and appreciation toEngland and home.[1] Styles stated he wrote the song at Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer's house and features Stringer's ringtone in the background at hisOne Night Only concert for Apple Music: Live.[12]
Styles announced the title of his upcoming third studio album asHarry's House on 23 March 2022, unveiling its artwork, a 40-second trailer and the album's release date of 20 May 2022.[18] In the trailer, Styles steps on the podium of a theatre and grins while a "house façade" rises near him and reversedsynthesisers play in the background; the audio would later be revealed to be a backwards version of the album's closing track, "Love of My Life".[19]Joni Mitchell, whose 1975 albumThe Hissing of Summer Lawns featured a track called "Harry's House /Centerpiece", tweeted that she "love[d] the title".[20] Upon announcing the album, Styles set up an interactive website and a newTwitter account. The messages published included "you are home" and "in this world, it's just us, you know it's not the same as it was".[21] The album was released on 20 May 2022 throughErskine andColumbia.[22]
On 15 April 2022, during hisCoachella headlining performance, Styles performed "As It Was" live for the first time, in addition to two then-unreleased songs from the album, "Boyfriends" and "Late Night Talking".[23]
One month before the album's release,Harry's House was reportedlyleaked on Twitter in its entirety.[24][25]Sony, owner of Columbia Records, publicly condemned the leak in a since deleted tweet.[26]
On 26 May 2022, in a segment onThe Late Late Show with James Corden, Styles andJames Corden filmed a music video for the song "Daylight" directed by the latter, in which they visit an apartment belonging to some fans. Both the music video and segment were released on the show's YouTube channel on 28 May 2022.[27][28][29][30]
Singles
"As It Was" was released as the lead single ofHarry's House on 1 April 2022, having been previously announced on 28 March 2022.[31] "As It Was" debuted atop the UK and US charts, becoming his second solo number one single in both countries,[32][33] and reached the top of Australian and Canadian charts.
"Late Night Talking" was released to USpop radio on 21 June 2022, as the album's second single.[34] It reached the top five on American, Australian, British and Canadian charts.[35][36][37][38]
"Music for a Sushi Restaurant" was released toadult contemporary radio on 3 October 2022, as the album's third single.[39] It peaked in the top ten on American, Australian, British and Canadian charts prior to its release as a single.
"Satellite" was released as the album's fourth single on 3 May 2023.[40][41][42]
Harry's House was met with critical acclaim. AtMetacritic, which assigns anormalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received anaverage score of 83 based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim"—Styles' highest rated album.[44]
Veteran criticRobert Christgau applauded the album's musical fluidity while stating, "Even more remarkable is the way the lyrics this soundscape cushion and accentuate achieve a metaphorical reach and narrative concreteness truly rare in megapop."[46]Alexis Petridis ofThe Guardian wrote that the album "ticks a lot of the right boxes and has abundant charm, which makes it a perfect reflection of thepop star who made it".[49] Reviewing the album forDIY, Emma Swann felt that while Styles alternately spends time "exploring vivid lyrical micro-vignettes" and then "obfuscating" the narrative on the album, he is "also not scared of being secondary to the song; a lesson it's taken many others far longer to learn".[47] Neil Z. Yeung fromAllMusic stated that "Harry's House is what happens when Styles steps out of the spotlight to live his life. And despite the fact that there's nothing as immortal as 'Watermelon Sugar' to be found, this album, as a whole, has solid bones and is sturdy enough to last."[45]
Year-end lists
Numerous critics and publications listedHarry's House in their year-end ranking of the best albums of 2022, often inside the top-ten.
Harry's House received extensive praise from musicians.Neil Tennant of thePet Shop Boys praised the album for its daring nature, stating "You're very aware that he wants to be a bit weird, even though he's a mainstream pop star. [...] It's great for that, because when pop is trying, I always think it's at its best."[66]Billie Eilish stated Styles influenced her to perform unreleased material after hisCoachella performance and that the trackBoyfriends was beautiful and vulnerable.[67]Lizzo,Ed Sheeran,Boy George, also all supported the album and Styles upon release.[68][69][70]
The album also received praise from those within the entertainment industry. AuthorRick Riordan hailed the album as "even better than Fine Line. "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" reminds of Paul Simon on Graceland [...] "As it Was" is infectiously listenable, and "Little Freak" is just beautifully sad."[71]
Commercial performance
Global
Two hours after the album was released onApple Music,Harry's House earned the most first-day streams for a pop album released in 2022.[72] The album ranked as the second most streamed album on Spotify in 2022.[73] It was the 10th most streamed album on Spotify in 2023.[74] With the entire tracklist charting within the top 15 of theARIA Charts, the album set a new record in Australia.[75]
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one on theUK Albums chart with 113,000album-equivalent units, becoming Styles' second number-one album and the fastest-selling album of 2022.[76] Based on the first five weeks' exclusive data from theOCC, Harry's House outperformedFine Line in the UK by almost 200% in terms of streaming consumption at the same stage of release.[77] The album was highlighted as helping to bring a £4 billion boost to UK music export revenue[78] and the highest level of vinyl sales since 1990.[79] The album and Styles' success was also credited with bringing record streaming success for UK acts at home and abroad.[80]
North America
In the United States,Harry's House debuted at number one on theBillboard 200 chart with 521,500 units, consisting of 330,000 pure sales and 189,000 streaming units (from the 246.96 million on-demand streams of the album's tracks). It became Styles' third US number-one album, his biggest debut in the country, and the second-largest opening week for an album in 2022, behindTaylor Swift'sMidnights.[81][note 1] Additionally, it set a modern-era record for single-week vinyl album sales in the US, selling 182,000 copies, and marked the second-largest week for an album on vinyl sinceLuminate began tracking music sales in 1991.[81]Harry's House notched a second consecutive week at number one, with 160,500 units sold, becoming his second album to spend multiple weeks atop the charts after 2019'sFine Line and the first album to spend its first two weeks at number one sinceAdele's30 spent its first six weeks at number one from late 2021 through to early 2022.[83]
Besides the chart-topper "As It Was", three other songs reached the top 10 of the USBillboard Hot 100: "Late Night Talking" (at number four), "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" (at number eight) and "Matilda" (at number nine). With four concurrent top-ten hits on the chart, this made Styles the first British solo artist to achieve this, and among all British acts he joinsthe Beatles, who achieved the feat in 1964.[84]
All tracks produced byKid Harpoon andTyler Johnson. "Cinema" was produced along with Samuel Witte. All tracks are written by Harry Styles, additional writers noted where applicable
^Midnights, the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriterTaylor Swift, surpassed the first-week tally ofHarry's House and garnered the biggest sales week of 2022 in the US.[82]
^Christgau, Robert (25 January 2023)."Dean's List: 2022".And It Don't Stop. Substack.Archived from the original on 1 April 2023. Retrieved11 March 2023.
^The New York Times Staff (5 February 2023)."Grammys 2023: Winners List".The New York Times.Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved5 February 2023.
^admin (26 April 2023)."Álbum/EP Internacional do Ano".SEC Awards 2023 (in Brazilian Portuguese).Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved17 May 2023.
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