“Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” is Harry Styles’ fourth work, a deliberately melancholic album that tells stories of love, loss and the struggles of adjusting to life after boyband fame.
Following a 22-month tour and 2022 album “Harry’s House,” Styles’ new album questions his evolving role as a pop star. The album feels like a standstill, as if one is watching the world progress in a blur as they remain on the sidelines.
Previously, Styles’ work has been fun and bouncy, with the occasional sad track. In a stark contrast from Styles’ previous music, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” is a 12-song series of “Who am I? What is life?” existentialism.
“Aperture,” the album’s opener that was first released separately as a single, quickly emerges as a standout. The song is soft, with rising crescendos and fluctuating volumes as Styles reflects on love and the passage of time he’s noticed: “Time won’t wait on me, I wanna know what safe is / I won’t stray from it, I don’t know these spaces,” he repeats towards the end.
Similarly, on “American Girls,” Styles remarks on the “love” he’s seen experienced by others across the world: “‘I’ve known you for ages’ / It’s all that I’ve heard / My friends are in love with American girls / I’ve seen it in stages all over the world.”
On the slow, lilting love song “Coming Up Roses,” Styles reflects on the seeming end of a relationship and the signs that they were never aligned. On “Are You Listening Yet?,” Styles directly asks his listeners if they’re even, in fact, listening yet.
Simply put, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally” does not have the essence of the fruity, bubbly songs that defined Styles’ three previous albums.
“Harry’s House” especially was airy and radio-ready, floating ideas of late night talking over a bottle of rouge, as in “Late Night Talking” and “Grapejuice.” “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” is nostalgic and regretful, reflecting on past moments in Styles’ life and a future that he can’t seem to place.
Even the more upbeat songs seem to have a certain weight to them: “Am I in over my head? / This could go anywhere / I pull and I pull at the thread / It’s making me pop,” Styles sings on one of the album’s most energetic songs, “Pop,” against a fast-paced beat and light vocals. The lyrics don’t match the music; the music doesn’t match the lyrics.
The melancholic reflection that is “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally” fits almost perfectly into the overall story of Styles’ musical chronology and his progression as an artist.
After One Direction went on indefinite hiatus in 2015, Styles and his bandmates were separately thrust directly into the spotlight. Following three albums that slyly toyed with the idea of sadness — with some heavier than others, like the songs “To Be So Lonely” and “Falling” from 2019’s album “Fine Line” — “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally” finally presents a package of nostalgia, missing puzzle pieces and a sense that something’s always off.
Styles grapples with these questions with a musical elegance and cadence that has the potential to completely confuse listeners. Some songs are more upbeat, and some are clear in their despair. To fully understand the album, you must truly listen.
Altogether, Styles provides music for rainy days, days of incomplete feelings, days where you miss a life never before experienced. With moral questions and synth-pop sorrow, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally” requires attention to grasp, and thus it’s wholly worth a listen.
