Harry Styles’ ‘Kiss All The Time’: New Album & Musical Evolution Explored | Rolling Stone Music Now

Harry Styles’s latest musical turn is drawing comparisons to pivotal moments in pop history, as the artist prepares to release his fourth studio album, Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally, on March 6th. The album’s lead single, “Aperture,” signals a departure into dance music, a move described as both “shocking and inevitable” following the synth-infused elements of his 2022 release, Harry’s House.

A new discussion on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, featuring Rob Sheffield, highlights Styles’s unique trajectory in pop music. Sheffield argues that Styles has carved out a distinct lane for himself, diverging from the path typically taken by white male pop singers since artists like Justin Timberlake and New Kids on the Block, who often drew heavily from contemporary R&B. Instead, Styles has consistently explored a wider range of influences, from Brit-pop and classic rock on his debut album to the Laurel Canyon sound of Fine Line and the funkier elements within Harry’s House.

This willingness to ignore prevailing trends, Sheffield suggests, has allowed Styles to create new ones. He draws a parallel to the music landscape of 1960, when Elvis Presley’s military service created an opening for up-and-coming artists like Fabian and Bobby Vee. “They all filled the void while Elvis was in the army,” Sheffield explained. “And they knew once Elvis got his discharge papers, it was gonna separate the boys from the men, so to speak. We would see who was going to stay a pop star and who was just taking up Elvis’s lane while Elvis was marching and drilling and getting addicted to speed pills.”

The podcast discussion delves into “Aperture,” noting its echoes of bands like Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, and the Chicago and Detroit house music scenes. Styles himself reportedly cited LCD Soundsystem as an influence. Sheffield also points to a lyrical connection to Leonard Cohen’s famous line, “there is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in,” suggesting a deliberate artistic ambition within the song’s energetic framework.

“It says a lot about Harry’s musical ambition,” Sheffield commented, “that you can make people think of Leonard Cohen in this really electro song about hitting the dance floor.”

The song’s lyrics also represent a shift in Styles’s approach, moving from individual narratives to a collective “we,” embodied in the song’s dance-floor chant of “we belong together.” Sheffield interprets this as a challenge to those attempting to emulate Styles’s sound, suggesting that replicating his innovative spirit will be a difficult task.

Listeners can access the full Rolling Stone Music Now episode, which includes a comprehensive review of Styles’s discography and discussion of his upcoming live performances, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.