![]() ![]() It’s the halfway point and all has changed! Suddenly the album bites back with raging rock riffs, Styles springing to life while being given temporary bail from the prison that is his aching heart. Styles’ hair, his suits and the caressing of his microphone will no doubt lend odes such as this one added swoon factor. The level of earnestness and honesty here is mimicked in the way he holds himself onstage right now. He croons, “We don’t know where we’re going but we know we belong” over warm guitars, like he’s serenading his lady while realizing he’s lost his way on one of London’s many grassy heaths as the sun begins to set. The third song to be released ahead of the album, “Sweet Creature” attempts to ape the sort of picked-out acoustic strums of a “Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s, “Norwegian Wood”‘ by The Beatles or Fleetwood Mac’s “Never Going Back Again.” This particular track was entirely self-penned by Styles in collaboration with Kid Harpoon. The slide guitar and country-folk leanings will place you in the heart of Styles’ second home of Laurel Canyon, among the company of David Crosby, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell. There, I said it. ![]() “Trying to remember how it feels to have a heartbeat…” Blimey. ![]() “We’re not who we used to be / We’re just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me,” he coos. However, any Britpop fan knows that Space and Kula Shaker are not to be sniffed at.Īpparently Nicholas Sparks’ novels inspired much of the songwriting on this debut, and it’s very easy to imagine an extended hyper emotional scene from “The Notebook” in the background while listening to Styles unwind this tragic, mystifying tale. With a breakdown that nods to The Beatles‘ “A Day In The Life,” Styles’ attempts at the classic canon of British songwriting means he sometimes falls into the kitschier territory of Britpop also-rans such as Space and Kula Shaker. The production searches for the funky weirdness possessed by Beck on “Midnite Vultures” or “Odelay” (think: “Peaches And Cream” from the former). Despite its simplicity, the way he wraps his voice around the phrasing completely eradicates any of that cloying awkward clumsiness possessed by Ed Sheeran – the competition for this kind of thing. “She’s a good girl, she’s such a good girl/She feels so good,” sings Styles. Unlike “Sign Of The Times,” you can feel a waft of relaxed Jamaican island life immediately on this jauntier, guitar-driven, rhythmic affair, which, true to title, is about a girl in Carolina (North or South is not specified). The post-Britpop force is strong in Styles. A musing on the end-of-world Armageddon we are living in, he welcomes us to “the final show, I hope you’re wearing your best clothes,” over lofty piano chords before lift-off on a chorus that seems aching to channel Bowie’s “All The Young Dudes” but probably lands somewhere around Starsailor’s “Silence Is Easy” or “Just Looking” by The Stereophonics. Arguably it’s his answer to Robbie Williams’ “Angels.” With a running time of six minutes, however, it’s unlikely to become a karaoke favorite. The music video, which arrived earlier this week, paints Styles as a walking-on-water Jesus figure, while also confusing him with another Harry (Potter) as he flies over British seaside cliffs. It’s an apocalyptic overture that conversely began its life in the least apocalyptic of settings, within the serene paradise of Jamaica. As Styles sings about walking the streets all day and being left in some cold, random hallway, he kicks off proceedings with a plea to an ex: “I gotta get better/And maybe we’ll work it out,” he sings, dreamily. You imagine it’s been crafted to look, feel and sound like an instant British rock classic, preened to slide alongside your prized records library. When Styles was younger, he told Rolling Stone, he was exposed to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon.” This track does possess some Floydian tendencies with a psychedelic acoustic guitar strum that recalls the likes of “San Tropez” on “Meddle.” In fact, Styles’ album artwork wouldn’t look out of place on a shelf next to some Floyd vinyl. “2…3…” Styles verbally counts into his opening track to add a sense of unveiling a sense that he’s come prepared a sense that this is no longer a rehearsal.
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