NEW YORK, May 20 (ABC):Pop sensation Harry Styles is set to release his third album Friday, a balmy collection whose twangy synths and soft acoustics compliment personal lyrics in his most intimate record yet.
The one-time boy band heartthrob to the teenage masses has grown into a heartthrob for all, and the dulcet tones and tender adulations of “Harry’s House” betray a pop star in love.
The album conjures the sonic equivalent of a warmly lit California afternoon by the pool, all the while showcasing Styles’s increasingly honed songwriting skills — which increasingly vie to make you blush.
“I feel like it’s kind of a collection of all of my favorite things and very much like the album I’ve always wanted to make, so I’m really happy,” Styles said after performing Thursday morning on the “Today” show’s stage at New York’s Rockefeller Plaza.
“It’s definitely the most personal record I think I’ve made,” he told the show. “Obviously, the pandemic and everything kind of added to the way it was made. It was made by a few people in a small room.”
“I think it’s the most free I’ve ever felt making music.”
Styles, born in England, catapulted to fame as part of the group One Direction, which reigned from 2010-2016 and remains one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.
Styles released his first solo album in 2017 and jumped to the top of the charts, following up with 2019’s “Fine Line” which also posted resounding commercial success.
And as his solo career blossoms, Styles has come to embody an emotionally available crooner whose charisma, gender-fluid style and sense of compassion have seen him dubbed a champion of inclusion.
In his new song “Boyfriends” he casts himself as the dreamy antithesis of…all boyfriends, running through the faults of toxic masculinity and presenting himself as an ally to the heartbroken.