"After a deluge of stadium concerts and films, Styles's capable if drippy 2022 adult-contemporary opus Harry's House managed to upset Beyoncé's Renaissance for Album of the Year at the Grammys. The 31-year-old then grew about as scarce as he had previously seemed ever-present. He guest hosted The Late Show With James Corden in 2023, memorialized late One Direction cohort Liam Payne and Fleetwood Mac icon Christine McVie in 2024, and ran a three-hour Berlin Marathon last fall but avoided any official business entirely."
"It carries the weight of succeeding "As It Was," his last album's lead single - which broke chart records in the U.S. and U.K. via New Wave revivalism à la the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights." The new song moves away from the Reagan-era-pop fixation of Harry's House, an insular work also shaped by domestic seclusion in 2020. Styles is catching up to the back-outside boisterousness of his contemporaries, shifting his focus to euphoric turn-of-the-millennium dance sounds he gleaned from clubbing in Europe."
Harry Styles largely withdrew from steady public music output for about three years while contemporaries released multiple albums. After extensive stadium touring and films, his 2022 album Harry's House won Album of the Year at the Grammys, propelled by the lead single 'As It Was'. He made occasional public appearances—guest hosting The Late Show, memorializing Liam Payne and Christine McVie, and running a Berlin Marathon—while avoiding official music business. He returns with 'Aperture,' the lead single from fourth album Kiss All the Time, shifting toward euphoric turn-of-the-millennium dance and disco influenced by European clubbing, and carrying the pressure of following 'As It Was'.
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