Well, friends, we meet again at the end of another year with a behemoth album looming before us. Last year as you may recall, I reported on The 1975's A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships as I made my way through it. I reported correctly then that I would have that album on repeat for a while and I can proudly say now that I saw the future! How amazing is that! I predicted I would binge listen to that album and I still do. I'm incredible.
But I digress. That was 2018. The times have changed. Actually, I guess you could say that the arrival of Harry Style's new album Fine Lines is a sign of the times changing (I'm not going to walk this one back. I'm sincerely standing by it). Here today I have my immediate review of Fine Line, written as I hear each song for the first time and not a second later. There may or may not have been no whitewash in the Nixon White House, but there with be NO outside influence on my hot takes on this album.
Golden
Remember when you were younger —like elementary school young— and there were charts with images to associate them with the colors in the picture? This might just be me but it's my roundabout way of saying this song sounds like the word golden. That is quite literally the best way to describe it.
It's a quintessential summer song that instantly makes you feel warm (despite it being a numbing 37 in Atlanta Fahrenheit degrees). Like I genuinely feel I'm driving with all the windows down and the sun GLOWING across my skin through the car's frame.
Watermelon Sugar
Ok, so Harry's out here to make me look bad at my job of being an in-the-moment listener because it appears three of the first four songs on the album were the three singles he released. Obviously I have heard these before so these hot takes will not be as fresh as the others. I'm so sorry for the deception I have encouraged.
I heard this, as many of us did, for the first time when he premiered it on Saturday Night Live. Full disclosure: I was on a Hinge date at the time and I remember this poor boy trying to talk to me while this song played but feeling like he and the world he was speaking from were light-years away. Like Golden, this song has time-travel capabilities and it whisks you away immediately from wherever you are to the middle of June.
Adore You
My friends. I have been bopping —nay, dancing— around to this song for the past week. I personally have never met Harry Styles, but I assume that this is the song that would play over the montage of us falling in love in a variety of locations. It features a great collection of shots of us laughing, talking, eating, dancing, looking wistfully into each other's eyes. Again, that's just me.
Lights Up
Listen. I'm just going to say it: this song is good but it's not great. Should we stand by our man and support him wholeheartedly through everything? But of course! I would never say otherwise. I will say though, let's calm down on the hype for this song. It's good. It's just not that good, you know?
Cherry
I had a lot of difficulties pulling myself out of my reverie to write this. Whereas Golden and Watermelon Sugar had transportive qualities to them, this one traps you right where you are as it tells you a story. It's not your love story but you feel overwhelmingly at once like it could be.
Falling
Ok, so the first note got me on this one. I genuinely wrote this before the lyrics started. I'm already hooked.
I may have spoken too soon about Cherry being about someone else's love story— actually. I was right. Cherry is someone else's (Harry and Camille Rowe's) love story that a listener can adopt, but Falling is immediately your own. It's personal in such a sudden way that catches you off guard and puts you on blast.
To Be So Lonely
This picks up immediately where Falling left off and it's such a beautiful transition. This album is a whole narrative arc of itself which is a bit disorienting when you realize but also so comfortable. It's like you're in a Harry Styles snowglobe except the snow globe is full of sadness.
She
I'm sorry The Beatles who? I'm getting some strong "Penny Lane" energy, a little "Eleanor Rigby" storytelling vibes off of this one!
I'm pretty sure the only word that can adequately describe this song is "groovy." Also, while I'm no music connoisseur, I can say with confidence that this guitar solo is a wild ride. This song is just fun (if a little long).
Sunflower, Vol. 6
I take it all back: this song is fun!! He clearly had fun making it, the lyrics are playful and endearing, the whole vibe is just one sure to make you smile.
Canyon Moon
It's bizarre that this album is coming out in the middle of December when it radiates a sunshine and summertime mentality that almost seems to be taunting us now. Night falls at 4:30 pm, the air hurts your face when you walk outside, there's snow. I'm not mad but Harry: I've got questions.
Treat People with Kindness
From the first note, this song is a trip. Once you acclimate to it, you have this sudden desire for a 70s inspired retro filtered music video of Harry performing this a lá Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.
Ok, I did just get to the line about watching your friends pass away and it being okay in arguably the happiest song on the album and I'm curious if it's a nod to the Zayn/Ringo burn from SNL. Is it insinuating some people are dead to Harry? Who's to say!
Fine Line
This song sounds like a Sunday night after you spent the entire day recovering from a bad hangover caused by a really good Saturday night. Actually, it sounds like this tweet (which I do, in fact, have on a t-shirt):
https://twitter.com/niallofficial/status/638352791757553664?lang=en
OVERALL TAKEAWAYS
I wouldn't be doing my job as a respectable journalist if I just said that this album has no flaws. Maybe it does. I just didn't hear a single one on my first listen.
Despite being in the midst of finals season, I feel more resolute after listening to this album. It starts out heavy very lovely and warm and you think "that's the Harry I know," and then it gets heavy as he discusses his breakup in such a vulnerable way and you go "oh, that's not the Harry I know." And then somehow by the end of it, he has us all holding hands in a circle singing kumbaya in perfect harmony. This is an album only Harry Styles could have made and, to that point, if Liam Payne has anything to say about that he should just keep it to himself!
