The second I heard the first note of Harry Styles’s new album “Harry’s House,” I knew that it would blow me away. And my instincts were completely right.

The lyrics are masterfully written, with every line telling an individual story about Styles’s history and life. The instruments used create a completely new sound to “Harry’s House” in comparison to the previous two albums that Styles has previously released. But what stood out the most to me was how individual each of the songs were – each of them completely different from and beautifully written.

So after listening to the brand-new album on repeat for multiple hours already, here are my thoughts on each song. 

Music For A Sushi Restaurant

As the first song on the album, “Music For A Sushi Restaurant” is the perfect, upbeat, well-written song to open up a track list that sends the listener on a rollercoaster of emotion. 

Since May 19, Styles, via an Instagram, Twitter, and online platform titled You Are Home, has been posting teasers to his songs and upcoming performances with a photo behind an animated door that fans could check everyday to see what was behind it. As I listened to the lyrics in the song, one line, “Excuse me, green tea, music for a sushi restaurant” stood out to me because it reminded me of a You Are Home post from April 28 that happened to be a shot of a green matcha tea. I felt that listening to these songs and thinking about what door could possibly relate to what lyric was a very interesting addition to the experience. 

Overall, “Music For A Sushi Restaurant” is definitely a song that someone can dance and sing along too, purely because of its upbeat sound and tone, as well as the intriguing lyrics, which range from mentions of egg yolk to falling in love.

Late Night Talking

The first time I heard “Late Night Talking” was during the live debut of the song at Styles’s first performance at Coachella on April 15. I live streamed the performance at 1 a.m., curled up in a blanket with the volume up as far as my headphones would allow, and I recall being absolutely shocked when Styles announced he’d be playing an unreleased song. 

The lyrics discuss a relationship founded on late night talking over the phone and not being able to stop thinking about each other, the chorus chanting “Can’t get you off my mind” on repeat. The song is beautifully written but not just Styles but Kid Harpoon as well, a well known English singer-songwriter and music producer. 

By far, the mood of the song absolutely radiates positivity and resonates with anyone who has ever been, or is, in love. The lyrics encapsulate how someone feels when they’re apart from their significant other, as Styles sings “It’s only been a couple of days and I miss you.” “Late Night Talking” is truly an unforgettable song. It relates to so many people and I’ll definitely remember listening to the recorded version for the first time for the rest of my life.

Grapejuice

Grapejuice begins with a raspy-voiced Styles counting up to three before launching into a deep guitar riff performed by Rob Harris, an English guitarist, overlaid with drums by Tyler Johnson, an American record producer, that continue throughout the song. I think the more rock-leaning instrumentals in the song really surprised me, just because it’s such a strong difference from the majority of Styles’s music. 

The song is definitely emotional and holds romantic ties, with Styles mentioning how “there’s just no getting through without you.” Grapejuice also ties in with the You Are Home’s post of a bundle of green grapes on March 24. 

Differences and cryptic captions aside, the drums and guitar really make the song stand out on the tracklist, and the lyrics, which range from a sunny afternoon to Styles sharing his thoughts about different types of wines, make the song a truly wonderful song to listen to. 

As It Was

Styles released “As It Was” as a teaser single before the rest of the album on April 1, sending fans into a spiral of emotions as they debated what it was about. Eventually, the general consensus was that Styles wrote the song about his relationship with his family. The song begins with a voice message from Styles’s goddaughter Ruby Winston, child of Ben and Meredith Winston. Winston opens the song by saying “Come on Harry, we want to say goodnight to you!,” which quickly became a beloved phrase by Styles’s fans. 

Styles has noticeably favored a 70s and 80s style both in his writing and his fashion statements, and this song incorporates nothing less than that, with the music reminiscent of a particularly 80’s sounding style. The song incorporated a multitude of instruments, ranging from the piano played by Johnson, and drums played by both Kid Harpoon and Mitch Rowland, whom Styles has worked with since his debut album in May of 2017. Alongside the song, which is a joy to listen to, Styles also released a music video on the same day of the release, which showed Styles dancing in a sparkly red jumpsuit. 

Daylight

“Daylight” focuses on a long-distance relationship, where Styles sings about having a partner that’s often missing and how he wants to be around them. The song is certainly romantic, with lines reading “If I was a bluebird, I would fly to you / You’ll be the spoon, dip you in honey so I could be sticking to you,” which elaborates on how much Styles wants to be around the person he’s missing. 

As I was listening to the song, which seemed peaceful and romantic at the time, I was absolutely shocked when it overlaid into a loud and powerful guitar riff and drum cycle. The introduction of the new noise was in sharp contrast to the joyful synth that begins the song made it all the more interesting. “Daylight” holds many similarities to some of his previous songs, as he mentions New York City, which reminded many fans not only of his 2017 track “Ever Since New York” but also of his One Night Only concert that he’s hosting the night of the album release. Similar mentions of his partner being the antidote to his problems reminded listeners of his 2019 hit “Golden” in which Styles sang “Loving you’s the antidote.” 

Daylight is an elaborate and deeply-rooted in emotion song, and I absolutely adored it, from the beautiful lyrics to the intriguing combination of instruments.

Little Freak

The moment I heard “Little Freak,” I knew that it would be one of my favorites. The gentle guitar and soft voice in the song is something I’ve always loved in Styles’s music, and I’m really pleased to see that returning on this album. 

The song focuses on how Styles jumped into a relationship too fast, him writing metaphorical lyrics such as “Jumped in feet first, then I landed too hard / A broken ankle, karma rules,” to show how he moved too fast. Styles also writes how he wished the “Little Freak” to stay youthful and never change their joyful behavior by asking them to “stay green a little while.” The reference to green ties into English slang that translates green to new or young, the etymology derived from trees, since saplings begin green and mature to have brown bark.

I think one of the reasons I really enjoyed “Little Freak” was because of Styles’s close attention to detail and how he incorporates specific metaphors to better portray what he’s trying to communicate with the lyrics. 

Matilda

“Matilda” is Styles’s heartbreak masterpiece. The lyrics are a work of art, the raw, unbridled emotion connected with me the instant I heard it. Styles sings about a family relationship that never resulted in love, and how Matilda could get away from that relationship by letting go. 

The part that really hit me hard was the line “Matilda, you talk of the pain like it’s all alright. But I know that you feel like a piece of you’s dead insidе,” which speaks to me on multiple levels. Styles let himself create whatever his mind wanted to in this song, and that brings an aspect of emotion and heartbreak that no other track on the album does.

The bridge was by far one of my favorite parts of the song, with some of my most loved lyrics during it, like “I don’t believe that time will change your mind / In other words, I know they won’t hurt you anymore, as long as you can let them go,” which made me wonder if Styles meant this song not just as an outlet for his feelings but advice for anyone who has felt like Matilda as well.

Cinema

After being absolutely wrecked by both “Little Freak” and “Matilda”, the next track, “Cinema,” was a much-appreciated breather from the previous, devastating, songs. The song contains hints of alternative tones, with a steady tune and soft amount of synth throughout. Styles came up with the idea for the beat on a treadmill, he said during an interview with Howard Stern. His personal notes and use of the word cinema to portray the romantic aspect of the song added a lot of enjoyment to the listening experience for me. 

The chorus portrays both a romantic but also self-doubting emotion when Styles sings “I just think you’re cool, I dig your cinema / Do you think I’m cool too? Or am I too into you?” But even with the more somber lyrics, the song is upbeat and fits with the relatively joyful aspect of “Harry’s House.” 

Daydreaming

“Daydreaming” is absolutely one of my favorite songs on this album. The immediate upbeat, happy, tune puts the listener in such an exhilarating mood. I adore the intro tune of “bah, bah, badiah!,” it just puts me in a good mood. The song is cheerful, Styles singing about a happy relationship where he feels he’s “living in a daydream.”

Styles, on multiple occasions, screams the lyrics in a very powerful way that makes me feel all of the emotion he’s put into the album. This song feels like a true love song, but in a new, Styles-created way, not a cliche that you hear every day on the radio. This song is different from any love song I’ve heard. 

Keep Driving

In another stroke of lyrical genius, Styles produced “Keep Driving,” a song that feels as if it should be blasted through car speakers while you’re driving late at night. In a metaphorical sense, “Keep Driving” is about ignoring everything that’s hard, focusing on your loved one, and just – moving on. And that is what I love about the song. How Styles wants the listener to feel so encapsulated by the positivity of the world around them and ignore everything else. 

The lyrics that Styles, alongside Rowland, Johnson, and Kid Harpoon, has written are the perfect song to put you in a good mood. I think my favorite lyric in the song has to be “A small concern with how the engine sounds, we held darkness in withheld clouds / I would ask, “Should we just keep driving?”” I feel like the problem with the engine could represent how nobody wants to stop and deal with a problem, they just want to keep moving forward. 

The song gives me a feeling of a summer night where you’re out with friends and nothing truly matters because the world is only focused on that one moment. And that’s exactly what I want to feel when I listen to this song. I want to feel the world melting away. And I do. 

Satellite

“Satellite” begins with a soft, quiet harmony of “ooh, ooh, ooh,” and it immediately eases you into what will be a song about a relationship gone wrong, with Styles left behind still waiting for his partner to take some action. Styles writes, “Spinnin’ out, waitin’ for ya to pull me in / I can see you’re lonely down there, don’t you know that I am right here?” The symbolism Styles incorporates into his lyric about a satellite spinning around and around points to him circling back to his feelings about the relationship over and over again, which is so relatable to anyone who’s felt the same way. 

Once again, the lyrics are relatable and soft, making the song all the better to listen to. Styles even incorporates some autotuned voices during the pre-chorus, adding to the overall positive tone the song radiates, no matter how sad the lyrics are. Styles truly is the master of sad lyrics but an upbeat tune.

Boyfriends

“To boyfriends everywhere, f**k you,” Styles, performing his previously unreleased song “Boyfriends” at Coachella, said in an iconic sequence of words that would forever go down as history in fan’s minds. 35 days later, the ever-somber track was released on Harry’s House. 

Once again, I first heard this song through a live-streamed Coachella performance on April 15. But what surprised me when I heard the recorded version was the beginning. The intro lyrics read “Hoo. Niaga ti ta kcab er’uoy, loof,” which sounded like gibberish at first – until I reversed it. In a classic feat of fantastic lyric writing, Styles reversed the sentence ‘Ohh, fool you’re back at it again.’ This sentence encapsulates the entire message of the song, a broken relationship that Styles keeps returning to. 

Love of My Life

On March 23, Styles released the promotional video and announcement for his new album, “Harry’s House.” Reversed, the soundtrack to the video sounded like an actual song. For months, fans wondered what the beat stuck in their heads could possibly be. The day Harry’s House was released, they discovered it was the tune to the 13th song on the album – “Love of My Life.”

“Love of My Life was definitely the most terrifying song for a long time because it’s so bare,” Styles said for Apple Music. “It’s kind of so sparse. But it also felt… like perfect closure.”

And “Love of My Life” did just that. The song was Styles’s closure for the love of his life.

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