Review Summary: Confused All The Time. Satisfied, Occasionally.
Harry Styles goes LCD Soundsystem! Wasn't this our collective thought when ‘Aperture’ hit the airwaves? Sprawling (five minutes? in the TikTok age?), glitchy and signaling a new, electronic-driven era in Styles’ discography, ‘Aperture' was, to put it bluntly, perplexing; its genre shift was exciting but its lack of immediacy akin to ‘Watermelon Sugar’ or ‘As It Was’ in order to inhabit this sonic mood was bold—a deliberate move away from pop sensibilities that could very well alienate his audience.
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. arrives with immense hype and a plethora of expectations: Harry Styles has always been a “style over substance” artist, beloved for his catchy singles but not known for confessional, imaginative or strong lyricism beneath those grooves. Could this bold lead-single signify a bold album that has -at long last- both style and substance?
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. breaks Styles’ “style over substance” ethos, but not in a way I expected or wanted. Here's the thing: What his previous efforts lacked in deep, impactful and distinctive songwriting, they more than made up for with their production quality and Styles’ absolute dedication to the aesthetic. Be it the glam-rock influences that matched well with Styles’ vocals all over his debut, the punchier sunshine-pop that made
Fine Line such an energized collection of songs or the consistently delightful and sweet grooves on
Harry’s House; despite the shallow and vague lyricism of these projects, the surrounding music and, mostly, the artist’s dedication to inhabit the music was what elevated these records. Fourth time proved no charm; for all its ambitions and inspirations,
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. ends up empty on both style and substance.
With a title and cover like
this, you'd expect an album whose goal is to capture the sweaty and joyful moments of a night out but, alas, Styles’ doesn't know what he wants to say on his record or what its unifying theme is. As a result, he turns to skin-deep turns of phrases and non-descriptors as means of exploring general and already-explored themes of lust and love. Head-stratching quips are the majority holder ("Her sweet eyes, your temptations / Don't deny her frustrations" and "But the music keeps hitting me like a ten out of ten” anyone?). Songs are filled with “unintimate sex” and “skipping sleep with dirty feet” and “time codes and Tokyo scenes” with no specificity or excitement tied to them. Eschewing the warm songwriting on his last album,
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. is bereft of memorable lyrics, as most of them feel they exist merely as placeholders or fillers for some low-impact hooks (current-single ‘American Girls’, ‘Are You Listening Yet?’, ‘Season 2 Weight Loss’). Simply put, the end result of most lyrics feels like a Mad-Libs game, spewing out some of the most thrown-together and bland writing of Styles’ career and relying on the production to do the heavy lifting, as was mostly expected.
Here’s the surprise (!): the music and aesthetics presented are equally unimpressive. For all its implications, opener ‘Aperture’ is the only true shocker here, a gradually-building progressive-house number whose electronic flourishes actively recall LCD Soundsystem; despite the constant build-up not really achieving any grandiose climax, the joyful chorus of “we belong together” is sticky enough to warrant multiple listens. Unfortunately,
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. sputters right away. A few glitchy electronic sounds do come along, most notably on ‘Ready, Steady, Go’’s chorus, but the album rests firmly on familiar dance-pop territory. This wouldn’t be an outright problem (familiarity doesn’t necessarily equal mediocrity), save for three things: 1) the album is almost unanimously hookless. Aside from ‘Aperture’’s euphoric chorus and ‘Pop’’s very groovy hook, I'm personally struggling to recall any other moment that made a positive impression. ‘Taste Back’ leaves indifferent; ‘Are You Listening Yet’’s spoken verses are clumsy and give way to an equally clumsy and tepid hook; ‘Dance No More’ opens up with a funky bassline and promises disco grooves, but falls flat on the chorus and doesn't build up after that (the “DJs don't dance no more” group vocals try to no avail). Mostly blaming Kid Harpoon’s puzzling involvement in a synth-heavy effort,
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. is surprisingly not very disco (not even occasionally). 2) the better songs here are destined for a different album. ‘Coming Up Roses’ and ‘Paint By Numbers’ are beautifully orchestrated ballads and Styles seems right at home singing on top of their violin and guitar strings, but within this album, these tracks (along with ‘The Waiting Game’’s sweet soft-rock approach) cause major sonic whiplash. Styles sounds more comfortable and natural performing on these tracks that pay homage to his previous albums; one is left to wonder if his attempts at tackling electronic and dance music are half-hearted. And speaking of performing, 3) Styles’ voice throughout the album is so lacking in passion and so drenched in unnecessary effects that he’s downright unrecognisable at times (‘Season 2 Weight Loss’). He doesn't seem to inhabit these electronic spaces with the same excitement he did with his pop-rock leanings, as stated with point number two. As a result, all the vocal effects and distorted electronics amount to nothing, since there's no overarching passion attached to them; Styles strikes out looking on
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally..
Bold as this album may be to some, I think Styles’ new album isn't bold enough—it would benefit from more risk-taking, more ecstasy, more mess. What his fellow Brits brought to the dance-floor (Jessie Ware’s one-two disco-punch of
What's Your Pleasure? and
That! Feels Good!, Charli XCX’s sweaty
brat, FKA twigs’ transcendent
EUSEXUA and its punchier
Afterglow sister) is missing here.
Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. aims for euphoric heights it cannot reach, mostly because its own performer and producing team isn't willing to go there with their songwriting and accompanying music. It will definitely prove commercially successful and, when we look back on his discography, it will end up as an interesting baby step into experimentation. For now, however, I am disappointed. Or better yet, I feel the way I felt after first listening to ‘Aperture’: perplexed.
