In an interview with Apple Music, Styles explained how he came up with the album title: "The album is named after Haruomi Hosono, he had an album in the '70s called Hosono's House（原文如此）, and I spent that chunk in Japan; I heard that record and I was like 'I love that.[...] It'd be really fun to make a record called Harry's House'."[4] The initial idea behind the album came when Styles wanted to take the title in a literal way so he could make an acoustic extended play recorded at his own house.[4] The album is considered Styles's most introspective of his career thus fair; according to Styles the central concept of 'house' is a metaphor for the inside of his mind rather than a "geographical location". Speaking on the album's concept, Styles said "It was much more of an internal thing… [and] it felt like it took on this whole new meaning and it was about, like: imagine, it’s a day in my house, what do I go through? A day in my mind, what do I go through? In my house I’m playing fun music, sad music, I’m playing this, I’m playing that. It’s a day in the life."[5]
The album was largely written and recorded during 2020 and 2021. "Boyfriends", however, was initially written during the final week of Fine Line (2019) recording.[6][7] The first song to be written for the album was "Late Night Talking", which was written the day Styles, the band and the producers arrived at Shangri-La studios in Malibu.[6] "Matilda" is titled after the lead character from a book of the same name, written by Roald Dahl. The song was inspired by a relationship Styles had with someone who was going through difficulty. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Style's stated he wrote the song to show he was listening: "Sometimes it's just about listening. I hope that's what I did here. If nothing else, it just says, 'I was listening to you'".[8] The album features John Mayer on lead guitar on "Cinema" and "Daydreaming".[9]
"Boyfriends" lyrically discusses the experience of romantic relationships in which "people don't treat each other very nicely sometimes" that Styles observed in his sister and friends when dating other people as well as his own experiences with dating. "Cinema" was Styles's "fun" track which he started writing while being on the treadmill and continued writing piecewise. "Love of My Life" is Styles's way of showing his love and appreciation to England and home.[4]
Musically, Harry's House takes influence from Japan's city pop genre[10] and also features pop-funk, pop rock, synth-pop and R&B.[11][12][13] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone described the album's musical sound as "bright", especially the productions use of synths and horns over synth-pop and R&B songs.[13]
Styles announced the title of his upcoming third studio album as Harry's House on 23 March 2022, unveiling its artwork, a 40-second trailer and the album's release date of 20 May 2022.[14] In the trailer, Styles steps on the podium of a theatre and grins while a "house façade" rises near him and reversed synthesisers play in the background - this would later be revealed to be a backwards version of the album's closer track, "Love of My Life".[15]Joni Mitchell, who included a track called "Harry's House / Centerpiece" on her 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns, tweeted that she "love[d] the title".[16] Upon announcing the album, he set up an interactive website and a new Twitter account. The messages say "you are home" and "in this world, it's just us, you know it's not the same as it was".[17] The album was released on 20 May 2022 through Erskine and Columbia.[18]
On 15 April 2022, during his Coachella headlining performance, Styles performed "As It Was" live for the first time, in addition to two then-unreleased songs from the album: "Boyfriends" and "Late Night Talking".[19]
On 26 May 2022, The Late Late Show with James Corden premiered a segment where Styles and James Corden filmed a music video for the song "Daylight" (the music video was directed by the latter), having visited an apartment belonging to some fans to do so. Both the music video and the segment were released on the show's YouTube channel on 28 May 2022.[20][21][22][23]
A month before the album's release, Harry's House was reportedly leaked on Twitter in its entirety.[24][25]Sony, owner of Columbia Records, publicly condemned the leak in a tweet.[26]
"As It Was" was released as the lead single on 1 April 2022, after previously being announced on 28 March 2022.[27] "As It Was" debuted atop the UK and US charts, becoming his second solo number one single in both countries.[28][29] The song also reached the top of Australian and Canadian charts.
"Late Night Talking" was released to US pop radio on 21 June 2022, as the album's second single.[30] It reached the top 5 on American, Australian, British, and Canadian charts.[31][32][33][34]
"Music for a Sushi Restaurant" was released to adult contemporary radio on 3 October 2022, as the album's third single.[35] It peaked within the top ten on American, Australian, British, and Canadian charts prior to its release as a single.
Harry's House was met with critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 83 based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim"—Styles' highest rated album.[36]
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that the album "ticks a lot of the right boxes and has abundant charm, which makes it a perfect reflection of the pop star who made it".[41] Reviewing the album for DIY, Emma Swann felt that while Styles alternately spends time "exploring vivid lyrical micro-vignettes" and then "obfuscating" the narrative on the album, he is "also not scared of being secondary to the song; a lesson it's taken many others far longer to learn".[39] Neil Z. Yeung from AllMusic stated that "Harry's House is what happens when Styles steps out of the spotlight to live his life. And despite the fact that there's nothing as immortal as 'Watermelon Sugar' to be found, this album, as a whole, has solid bones and is sturdy enough to last."[37]
With four concurrent top-ten hits on the chart, this made Styles the first British solo artist to achieve this, and among all British acts he joins the Beatles, who achieved the feat in 1964.
^"Top 50 Prodejní". Czech Albums. ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 202221 on the field besides the word "Zobrazit", and then click over the word to retrieve the correct chart data.
