There’s a long tradition of artists heading for the promised land of California seeking musical fortunes. Don Henley and his pre-Eagles band Shiloh moved west from Texas at the behest of Kenny Rogers, who ended up producing an album for the group. In the early ’80s, Axl Rose left behind a turbulent adolescence in Indiana and immersed himself in L.A.’s burgeoning hard-rock scene. So did a nascent Poison, who peaced out from Pennsylvania for the Sunset Strip. And, as this 2018 Los Angeles magazine article notes, a whole slew of artists who first found fame in New York City have since decided to put down roots in the city.
With the release of Fine Line, you can certainly count England-born Harry Styles in this group of musicians soaking up heady inspiration from California’s idyllic weather, sunshine myths, and studio talent. Recorded in part at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio, and featuring string arrangements on several songs from noted L.A. denizen David Campbell, Fine Line oozes laid-back, Golden State chill—both the stuff of idle daydreams (the hazy sparkle-funk of “Sunflower, Vol. 6”) and idle daydreams come true (the aptly titled “Golden”).
On a surface level, Fine Line is an obvious manifestation of Styles’ classic rock and soul fandom. This isn’t new for the pop world—in a sense, both Miguel and Panic At The Disco walked so Harry could fly—although the earnest ways in which Styles incorporates his bygone influences are irresistible. (And, in some cases, mighty impressive: According to Rolling Stone, Styles learned dulcimer for “Canyon Moon” by seeking out Joellen Lapidus, who famously built one of the instruments for Joni Mitchell.)
Kaleidoscopic vocals, courtesy of Lucius and a gospel choir, propel “Treat People With Kindness,” which has a strong ’70s musical theater vibe. “She” is a gnarly prog-pop epic with hollowed-out electric guitar sprawls and seasick sonic atmospheres, while the velvety soul singles “Adore You” and “Lights Up” are luxurious. And while Styles told Rolling Stone that “Canyon Moon” is “Crosby, Stills, and Nash on steroids”—a fair assessment, judging by the porch-jam acoustic guitar as well as the dulcimer—the standout “Golden” boasts echoes of the needling harmonies near the end of CSN’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” as well as any number of warm, AM Gold pop-rock hits.
Appropriately, Fine Line’s lyrical themes are also timeless: the agony and ecstasy of romance and heartbreak. (More specifically, Styles told Rolling Stone earlier this year the album is “all about having sex and feeling sad.”) The melancholy songs in particular pack a lingering emotional wallop, mainly due to their unsparing introspection. The hushed piano ballad “Falling” is a harrowing account of a breakup’s aftermath (“What if I’m someone I don’t want around?”), while the protagonist of “To Be So Lonely” veers between unflattering self-reflection (“I’m just an arrogant son of a bitch / Who can’t admit when he’s sorry”) and angst over trying to maintain friendship with an ex. “Cherry,” meanwhile, is mired in the petulant stage of a relationship bust-up (“I still miss your accent and your friends / Did you know I still talk to them?”), which also makes it one of the album’s most cutting songs.
Despite these familiar touchstones, Fine Line avoids the obvious trap of being a mere retro rehash. The production and mixing adds radio-ready polish, while its credits reveal modern big names such as Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Fun) and Tyler Johnson (Cam, The Head And The Heart). Pino Palladino—the bassist on D’Angelo’s Voodoo and for John Mayer, among others—adds liquid funk to the horn-peppered rocker “Watermelon Sugar” and slinky menace to “She.” The psychedelic-skimming “Sunflower, Vol. 6,” meanwhile, isn’t a far cry from the indie-leaning pop favored by HAIM or Beck, no doubt due to the songwriting/production involvement of Greg Kurstin. And Fine Line offers subtle sonic curveballs throughout that add atmosphere and delightful weirdness. “Cherry” ends with a mournful acoustic interlude that features a recording of Styles’ ex-girlfriend cooing in French that eventually fades into silence, while “Lights Up” stops on a dime for a piano-driven, minor-key pre-chorus that poses the question, “Do you know who you are?”
Of course, not everything on Fine Line works. Sequencing-wise, the album front-loads the uptempo songs and singles, meaning the middle section featuring Styles’ most heartbroken confessions deflates the musical momentum. The album-closing title track is an anemic-sounding, meandering take on Bon Iver’s wintry-folk early days, and the premise of “She”—a company man who daydreams about an unnamed woman, despite having a family life and existing partner—is slight instead of meaningful.
Those last two songs especially underscore that while Fine Line is certainly a commercial slam dunk due to Styles’ popularity, the album is far from a safe creative bet. Luckily, Styles has the charisma, curiosity, and raw talent to pull off even his weirder detours. In fact, Fine Line proves that the musician has absorbed the best lesson passed down by California’s great musicians: Don’t be afraid to take chances within a folk- or pop-rock framework, as that’s how you create iconoclastic music that endures.
37 Comments
Good lord those fucking circus pants.
those kellyanne-conway-at-the-inauguration-ass pants
Those Mickey Mouse goes Havana parade marshal pants.
I HATE how they look but I own a couple of pairs and lord, they are COMFY.
I thought the closing and title track was the strongest track on the album. I’m a sucker for a big build up of instruments and when the drumline and horns come in I just think it sounds so mournful and beautiful. It wasn’t all hitting but I appreciate him at least trying to do something different. She and Treat People With Kindness both sound like the opposite of what you’d expect from a famous former boy band member and I appreciate that. The bar is low for me, but I thought it was a triumph.
Even though I don’t really listen to pop music I am fully charmed by Harry Styles and think he’s just a cool persona to exist in the modern pantheon. Now I just want him to act more because he was truly scene stealing in Dunkirk.
I’m too lazy to Google. Was he the lead in the movie? I’ll check it out if he has a substantial enough presence in it.
It’s hard to say Dunkirk had a lead, it’s three vignettes that come together at the end. I think he plays a substantial role in one of them, but there’s a whole lot of identical looking white boys in that movie, and also Tom Hardy flying a Spitfire.
This is a surprisingly good 2 sentence review.Tom Hardy, you say? 🙂
He plays a considerable role in one of the three vignettes (the beach), but he’s not one of the primary protagonists. (He could best be described as the lead non-German antagonist in that, but he’s pretty good in it.)
Nothing in the world could make me watch another WWII movie made by another white man, but dammit if I didn’t watch all of Styles’ interviews to promote it. He seems like a darling. I’m streaming the album on repeat because I really like him and I think he deserves the plays. It’s a boppy album and I’m genuinely into about 75% of it.
Reducing Pino to “the bassist on D’Angelo’s Voodoo and for John Mayer, among others” is certainly an interesting choice.
Lights Up is a legit pop classic but the rest of it just doesn’t add up to much…it’s just sugar dissolved in water
Did you listen to the whole album? Because it tells a story I find it quite good. My kids liked 1 direction wasn’t really my cup of tea but I listened to the first Harry Styles album and dig the 70 brit rock vibe. If your judging off a few songs don’t. Listen to the whole thing. It could easily be an album of the year. Metric sales have it at around 450k for the first week if it goes higher who knows but with that number it would be the 3rd biggest album of the year.
I did listen to the whole album. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s listenable. But for me a lot of the songs are forgettable. Lights Out is the true standout.Not gonna argue sales metrics…good for him. Seems like an affable guy.
Gotta agree. He has a tantilyzing physical presence, but – yeah – “watery” over-all. He just sounds like any other white boy whose background vocals might or might not be 1 Direction.
I really love To Be So Lonely, and I think Golden and Adore You are Lights Up style bops! Watermelon Sugar is on my sex playlist, and I think Cherry is a really pretty song. But I think his life changing album is still one or two away, a la Ariana Grande. He’s still working his style out, and I’m fine with that. It’s a nice listen.
Harry is doing the same thing as that one cute Jonas brother: queer baiting. They ape (our) queer style, flirt with lgbtq aethetics, tease and dance around the gay crowd in order to build an audience. But is he an ally? Has Harry Styles in any shape or form come out strong for queer rights and equality? No. He might be a perfectly lovely person but I’m utterly exhausted by the marketing strategy of leaning hard into the gay crowd as an advertising strategy for hetero artists to get ahead, because we ARE the taste makers for so many pop stars nowadays and the industry knows it. But are any of these stars legitimate, blood-to-bone allies? No. Very few of them are. They want us to thirst over them and make them famous and do all of the leg work to promote their work without having to pay more than a shirtless pic… but at the end of the day, almost none of them are actually queer or give two shits about the community or fighting the fight on our behalf.
Who cares? He’s doing him and if anyone wants him to be queer in their head, that’s on them. He hasn’t even done the shit that one Jonas brother did and put himself on a gay mag cover and talk about being an ally.Any thirst? Is on you or someone else thinking something about him that, to the best of my knowledge, he’s made clear: That he’s not queer, gay, or even bi. He’s hetero. The man said it in PRINT. In 2013!
Styles insisted to GQ that he and [Nick] Grimshaw aren’t dating and are just friends. “Bisexual? Me? I don’t think so,” Styles said. “I’m pretty sure I’m not.” http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2013-07/29/one-direction-gq-covers-interviewSo whatever’s going on in your head? Is on you.Note: I’m not a fan of his, listening to a couple of these vids on the post is the first time I’ve heard more than one song by the guy. But you picked a shitty hill to die on and you needed to be told so I deputized myself.
And than is 2019 he tells that he doesn’t put a label on himself, in print form too. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/14/harry-styles-sexual-ambiguity-dating-normals-rocking-a-dress?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1576316742
Not putting a label on yourself, is a form of ally-ship, in case you didn’t know.It’s not “queer-baiting”. Why are you confused? Do you not understand the difference? I don’t think you do.
You literally said in first comment “He’s hetero”. Do you know what ‘not putting a label’ means, because “I don’t think you do”.
The difference is, I put a label on him, he didn’t put it on himself.I chose to define him for the sake of this conversation based on his past words. He choses not to define himself at this point publicly because that’s what he wants to do.How do you not understand the difference? Do you know what the difference between me defining him and him defining himself are? Really? You don’t get that?
Yeah because defining people differently than they are defining themselves is a really good idea. I guess you are transfobe too.
I guess you’re an idiot but, you are good for a laugh.Keep trying, though. Watching you try to define me as something-phobic is amusing me.
That’s how it feels when people define something about you and force their beliefs on you, annoying, isn’t it? Sarcasm is just a defence mechanism.
Hilarious? It feels hilarious? Because that’s the way you made me feel about your definition of me.You’re trying soooooo hard, though.And I started out sarcastic, it’s not my fault you’re so narcissistic you think it’s about you.Look, I can see your heart’s in the right place but trying to paint me as anything-phobic because I merely corrected the original commenter’s view that Styles was queer-baiting or pretending to be queer for attention, is hardly worth your pretty lame attempts at dragging me.
How does he appropriates queer style? By wearing pink shirt and plagiarizing Rolling stones (should I remind how many women Mick Jagger dated). Appropriation itself is actually neutral term, it becomes negative when someone who appropriates is way privileged than someone who creates (white people appropriate black music, it’s bad, yes). But sometimes queer community poaches something what is pretty common thing. Excuse me, but if we going to say that some type of clothing style is a part of our culture and that’s why people outside aren’t allowed to do/wear/say – we are no better than that who say “pink for girls, blue for boys”. Because if you will ban heterosexual men from wearing pussy blouses because it’s queer, how do you expect them to treat us somehow respectively. And limiting other person options is wrong. And putting stereotypes on clothing, etc is wrong too, because this backfires fast (like he’s wearing flowers shirt, he’s gaaaay!).
Here comes the gatekeeper. Fuck!!
And here I was thinking it was a bunch of songs he recorded.
Hey – Harry actually chooses a charity in every city he tours to support. My friend attended a show at his last tour where he chose an immigration charity; people could choose to write a post card to the administration and talk about why they disagreed with his policies. Proceeds from his tour and merch go to the supported charities per show. Don’t mistake someone’s lack of presence on social media as silence. As an LGBT+ person, I’m pretty thrilled with the support Styles gives us. If he wants to wear flared pants and no shirt, good for him.
Good post. This cultural (phenomenon?) isn’t something I had thought about. Now I can’t stop thinking about it:/
You really don’t know the guy, you’re just supposing things about his personality that YOU don’t even know if it’s true. He is starting he’s journey rigth now, respect him as a person and as an artist.
I’ve been listening to his album just about of repeat for the past few days and I’m very impressed. I’m more of a rock fan but fell in love with his first album and really enjoy this one. I love the story that it tells and really like the track arrangement- in fact I love how it starts off with 4 fun and upbeat songs and then drifts into pain, then reflection and finally acceptance. And I like how side A, B, C and D all tell their own stories and could be their own little EPs (A-C anyway). To be so lonely, She, and the title track stood out to me the most on first listen but I really do love them all. I even woke up with TPWK stuck in my head this morning!
The first I like way more than this one, Fine line isn’t sonically cohesive. I mean how She with great guitar solo and Canyon moon, which is country that got lost, can exist in one record. Can we stop trying to make country music to happen, it’s not going to happen god damn. I think I dislike this one because of country elements (To be so lonely, Sunflower vol 6, Canyon moon), first record was pop rock almost. I hope he won’t go this road anymore. And I found lyric to be weaker. Sign of the times was repetitive, but Fine line repeats line “We’ll be fine line” 12! bloody times. I hate repetition of lyrics in modern pop, because it moved from outro or bridges to chorus, but this is too much for me, especially when he tries all that glam old school rock, which was famous for good lyric. Listen to Bowie or Rolling stones, and this, obviously they are way superior than him, but can he try at least. And comparing Harry to Harry – Falling to From the dining table. Both songs are about being alone and a heartbreak, but Falling lyrics is so boring and almost routine, while From the dining table is honest and vulnerable. He said that he wanted his first record to show others that he’s a serious artist, so he worked hard on music and concept etc, but with this one he just had fun, well I think it needed time to be polished better and some concept to be put into, because we have Falling and than Treat people with kindness, song with totally different, almost opposite themes. Not every album should be concept, but stuff like that give me cognitive dissonance. I am really surprised by reviews, Pitchfork gave it 6 out of 10, and their review concurs with my feelings and thoughts, but others are like 5 stars, 5 stars, 4 stars, seriously? It’s, well, fine, but not that good. Harry sings on the To be so lonely that he’s a boy (25 years old boy), it’s time to grow up and put some effort and hard work, fun doesn’t disappear when you’re full grown rich star, don’t worry.
something in between the soyboy and the drug queen. anything goes in the world of weird people 🙂
Watermelon Sugar is SO similar to early Justin Timberlake.
I disagree wholeheartedly about “She.” There is nothing slight about it at all. That song is a masterpiece. The longing in the lyrics of a different life, the mid-life crisis expressed so clearly through the simplicity of the lyrics, the layering of melodies. The guitar rifs, the guitar outro… it’s pure brilliance.