While his music can’t possibly live up to the sparkling imagery of his press profiles, which regularly paint him as a nail polish-sporting hybrid of David Bowie and Stevie Nicks, on his second solo album Harry Styles does make a strong argument for being the most interesting boy band escapee yet.
No crashingly obvious Sinatra covers or generic of-the-moment R&B for him – the blunt pop-rock of One Direction has been forsaken for soulful funk on Watermelon Sugar, Californian hippie balladry on Canyon Moon and disco gospel on the defiantly odd Treat People With Kindness. The songs are dotted with weird bits, from a girl speaking echoing French at the end of Cherry to the catchiest one, a Greg Kurstin collaboration entitled Sunflower, that manages to mix bouncy fairground organ with cuckooing yelps and jittery guitar effects.
Mostly he sounds upbeat, singing about girls and relying heavily on images of fruit and sweetness. A tedious passage in the middle finds him wallowing, crying out to be taken seriously on the six-minute She and beating himself up over flamenco guitar on To Be So Lonely.
“I’m just an arrogant son of a b**** who can’t admit when he’s sorry,” he sings. Maybe so, but there’s plenty he can be proud of here.
