His first solo single in over two years. a sad synth-pop bop that indicates a tone shift for his upcoming album
New Harry Styles synth-pop banger just dropped. The singer-songwriter has released “As It Was” from his upcoming third album Harry’s House, along with a sequin-laden music video.
Styles is seen dancing through set pieces while being separated from a woman wearing a blue version of his outfit. Styles gently muses about loneliness and isolation over a trilling synth beat in the highly choreographed video.
The song begins with a cute message from his own goddaughter Ruby (daughter of TV producer Ben Winston) demanding he pick up the phone. In Fine Line’s “Cherry,” he interspersed a voicemail from ex-girlfriend Camille Rowe. Whereas previous songs leaned heavily on heartbreak and the subsequent sadness, As It Was leans more into the melancholy of introspection.
“As It Was” is Styles’ most personal and vulnerable song yet, focusing on his own celebrity and how it can affect his mental health and relationships. After two years of living under a pandemic, “As It Was” evokes a sense of pensive gloom many of us can relate to. We’ve had to confront who we are away from the situations that shape us and learn to love the person left behind, and Styles seems to have been no exception. Styles has created an anthem for the pandemic generation with “As It Was,” a song that has all the trappings of a Summer smash but still has the scars of how things were. What’s better than a good sob/good vibes double-hander right now?
Styles has dabbled in almost every pop-rock subgenre, but never more so than in the lead-up to “As It Was”. Fans were expecting a 70s resurgence after his latest beauty venture, Pleasing. The Shroom Bloom Collection is inspired by the free-love movement of the 1970s and features Mick Fleetwood, Harry’s friend and adoptive father. How about Harry’s House (from Joni Mitchell’s “Peace, Love, and Rock’n’Roll”)?
Harry has always introduced the full ethos of work with his lead singles. Anthemic and cathartic, “Sign of the Times” introduced us to a new solo star we had previously only seen as one of five. The Fine Line era began with “Lights Up” in 2019. Unlike the self-titled, Fine Line focuses on the carnal experiences of life (“it’s about having sex and feeling sad”, he admits). So where does “As It Was” fit when we finally get Harry’s House at the end of the month?
No one, not even Harry Styles or the stans who eagerly await his output, can escape the personal effects of the last two years. After “As It Was” gave us a new perspective on the demi-god (he is now a demi-god in the MCU), perhaps Harry’s House will show more of his famously private side. Styles’ penchant for leaning into his own musical influences will take centre stage, whether it’s Fleetwood Mac’s more psychedelic edge, Joni Mitchell’s 70s Folk-Americana or the echoes of Depeche Mode in “As It Was”. Styles has never been comfortable with settling on how he did things before, and that will probably save him from the dreaded third album syndrome that plagues many artists. We can probably deduce that nothing will be as it was.