Harry Styles: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.

""It's like you're taking up arms, but the message is wet/It sounds inviting, but you don't believe it yet," he intones on "Are You Listening Yet?", one of a few songs where he attempts to capture the strung-out cool of prime dance-punk. On "Season 2 Weight Loss," he admits, "It's hard to tell when the thoughts are my own," a sad indictment of a record that sounds like it was written with maximum respectability in mind."

"Fans looking for their introduction to club hedonism might be surprised to learn that wild, sweaty abandon can be conjured with the same big crash cymbals and plinky guitar lines that have featured on every other Harry Styles record. There are enough nods on Kiss All the Time to Styles' stated influences--a sharp, craggy synth running through "Season 2 Weight Loss"; chattering drum machine on the bittersweet Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix-ish highlight "Taste Back"-that you can at least identify his intention."

"But Styles undermines himself every time with moves straight out of the stadium-pop playbook: A dazed acoustic guitar interlude on "Ready, Steady, Go!"; a big festival chorus on "American Girls"; the aforementioned big drum fills on "Carla's Song." By regressing to the safe embrace of the Los Angeles producer toolkit over and over again-in a world where James Murphy has never met a check he couldn't cash-Styles denies any of the catharsis or releas"

Kiss All the Time draws inspiration from LCD Soundsystem, Berlin's club scene, and marathon running, with Styles exploring themes of identity and self-discovery. The album features moments where he captures dance-punk aesthetics, particularly on tracks like "Are You Listening Yet?" and "Taste Back," which reference his stated influences through sharp synths and drum machines. However, the record is hindered by its apparent pursuit of respectability and commercial safety. Styles consistently undermines his dance music ambitions by incorporating stadium-pop elements such as acoustic guitar interludes, festival choruses, and prominent drum fills. This reliance on familiar Los Angeles production techniques prevents the album from delivering genuine catharsis or the wild abandon associated with club music.

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