After nearly three years of silence, British singer Harry Styles announced an album drop on Jan. 15. Two months later, the album, named “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.” (KATTDO), dropped on Friday, March 6. Before then, fans have falsely predicted many dates when they hoped Styles would drop an album and have caused a ruckus whenever he was seen out in public, because Styles quite literally disappeared off of the surface of the Earth after he finished his final Love On Tour concert leg in 2023.
So, naturally this album drop has been a pretty big deal for me and his other 63.6 million Spotify listeners.
KATTDO has 12 songs and is a 42 minute listen all together. I listened to the album at 11:00 p.m. sharp when it dropped and took a liking to it right away. Still, after I have had a whole week to form my opinion on the music, I am proud to say that I absolutely love the album (and I wish that I bagged those concert tickets so badly).
I previously ranked my top five Harry Styles songs in anticipation of this album, so I figured it was only right to rank my top five just from this album alone!
Honorable mention: Carla’s Song
As I mentioned in my previous top 5, I think Styles has mastered the art of repeating lyrics in his music. He genuinely does it so well. This song repeats “I know what you like” and “it’s all waiting there for you” for a good portion of the song, which reiterates his point of a hopeful future for someone after a rough time. It reminds me that there is always light at the end of the dark tunnel; I think that’s a topic that isn’t sung about enough.
Just like its title, Pop is a true pop song. It has an upbeat tune and vibrant instrumental tracks. To me, this song is about being overwhelmed and anxious about something to the point of reaching your breaking point with lyrics such as “I don’t know how it’ll end/I pull and I pull at the thread/Am I in over my head?” deepening that idea. I think we’ve all had times where we felt loaded with anxiety where Pop could be relatable. My personal favorite part of the song is probably the climax of the chorus where the tune sounds busy and frantic but it calms back down when Styles says “pop”.
This song kind of reminds me of something that would have been on Styles’s debut album. I like his more high-pitched background vocals in contrast with his deeper main singing voice, which match the leading beat of the drums. One part of the song that I enjoy is the way that Styles alternates between singing and kind of speaking certain lines. Are you Listening Yet? is a track about making the right decision and choosing between listening to your head versus your heart. It highlights being confused between what is right and what is wrong for yourself and the struggle of doing what benefits you.
Aperture by dictionary means “an opening”, which made me think of this song being a gap of Styles’s streak of not making music. It dropped as a single on Jan 22, which gave fans a preview of what Styles’s new album was going to sound like. I absolutely loved it because it is such a happy and upbeat song, and it made me feel so excited that Styles was coming back and doing well. This is a song that I play to raise my mood and I have especially enjoyed playing it while cleaning my room because it’s fun to dance around and sing along to. I highly recommend watching the performance of Aperture, because Styles’s voice sounds raw and more developed than it did when we last heard him live three years ago.
Coming Up Roses is such a beautiful ballad where Styles confesses his love for someone while reminiscing about past times they have shared together. I can easily imagine this song as a perfect first-dance song at a wedding. It’s gentle and quiet, with Styles’s voice coming through a waltz-like beat. I especially like the lyrics “I’ll talk your ear off about why it’s safe/As I fumble my words and fall flat on my face through the truth” because they sound really honest and raw. And compared to many love songs nowadays where artists overdramatize their relationships, Styles focuses on a more tender viewpoint of his love.
The opening line of Paint By Numbers made me tear up immediately upon first listen- that being: “Oh, what a gift it is to be noticed”. I thought that was really special because all that anybody really wants from life is to be seen. It talks about struggling to meet expectations of an image created for yourself and being noticed for being yourself and not those expectations. I like the continuous line “it’s a lifetime of learning to paint by numbers” because it serves as a metaphor for trying new things in your life and figuring out who you are and what works best for you. Moreover, the song nods at a tribute to former One Direction member Liam Payne, who passed away in October 2024, with the lyrics “Not even 33/kids with water guns, watch them run” because the two grew up together in the boy band. I absolutely love sad songs with my entire heart, and this one really hit the spot because similarly to my all-time favorite Harry Styles song, Matilda, the meaning of this track seems fully up to your own interpretation.
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