Although Harry Styles may be one of the most boisterous performers in today's pop sphere — just looking at photos from his Coachella headlining performance will psych you up — he's always approached social media with a light touch. So it's no surprise Styles took the coy route when announcing what his fans have anxiously awaited: his third album.
Styles revealed the big news on social media in March with just four words: "Harry's House. May 20th."
The boy bander turned rock star hasn't said too much about his next LP, the follow-up to 2019's Fine Line. But amid his Coachella teasers and his fitting Better Homes & Gardens cover story, there's still plenty to divulge for fans before Harry's House arrives.
Below, take a look at everything GRAMMY.com could find on Harry's House so far.
The Album Is Titled Harry's House, Arriving May 20
On March 23, Styles revealed his third album on social media in subdued fashion: A simple post of the album cover — a contemplative Styles in an upside down room — with the caption "Harry's House. May 20th."
The announcement came without any warning, naturally sending fans into a frenzy — including his Coachella duet partner, Shania Twain, who exclaimed "Oh my gosh I cannot wait!!"
The Title Came From More Time Spent At… Well, Harry's House
The pandemic-driven two years of downtime was the first time Styles had a break since his career began in 2010. Being home for an extended period proved revelatory for Styles; he found home in the physical sense, but also "in terms of a headspace or mental well-being," he told Better Homes & Gardens.
As the BH&G writer alluded, though, there are images of Harry's house sprinkled across the album, from references to the kitchen, "sitting in the garden" and "maple syrup, coffee, pancakes for two."
He Used A "Blank Canvas" To Create It
Styles' first and second albums, 2017's Harry Styles and 2019's Fine Line, paid homage to Joni Mitchell and David Bowie, both classic artists who inspired the singer.
But as detailed in Better Homes & Gardens, Styles opted to ignore his influences, cleaning his aural palette with classical music. In turn, he started anew with, as he put it, "a blank canvas.
Lead single "As It Was" indicated that the clean slate may result in a lighter melodic sense and brighter synth-pop production across Harry's House — something that was further teased when Styles performed the funked-up "Late Night Talking" during his Coachella headlining set. (He also debuted the melancholy, acoustic "Boyfriends," which was more reminiscent of the folk-inspired sounds from his self-titled LP.)
Though Styles hasn't confirmed any intentional relation, its title mirrors Mitchell's "Harry's House / Centerpiece" from her 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns. In March, Mitchell's account tweeted Styles' album announcement and said "love the title."
He Teamed Up With His Right-Hand Men
Whatever Harry's House brings, fans who enjoyed Styles' first two albums will likely revel in this one too. That's because the star wrote and recorded nearly every song with Tyler Johnson and Thomas Hull (better known as Kid Harpoon), two of his closest collaborators on Harry Styles and Fine Line.
Johnson and Hull co-produced 10 of the 12 tracks on Fine Line, and Johnson co-wrote all but one of the songs on Harry Styles ("Sweet Creature," which Hull coincidentally co-wrote). Harry's House also features appearances from Styles' previous collaborators Mitch Rowland and Amy Allen, the latter of whom co-wrote his Fine Line hit "Adore You."
The Harry's House Tracklist Is Broken Into Two Parts
In yet another abrupt-yet-subtle social media post, Styles unveiled the Harry's House track list on Twitter on April 28. The 13 songs will be split into Side A and Side B.
One fan pointed out that the album's opener, "Music For A Sushi Restaurant" is "sooo billy joel of you" (a la Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant").
Others may have noticed that Styles continues his sly odes to fruit across his discography with "Grapejuice" (Harry Styles featured a fan-favorite rocker titled "Kiwi"; Fine Line included both "Cherry" and the GRAMMY-winning "Watermelon Sugar").
Styles Considers It "By Far The Most Intimate" Album He's Made
Styles hinted to Better Homes & Gardens that while Harry's House "sounds like the biggest, and the most fun" of his albums thus far, he also revealed, "it's by far the most intimate."
Though he didn't elaborate on what exactly he meant by "intimate," Styles did open up about getting more comfortable with talking about sex. "I think I got to a place where I was like, why do I feel ashamed? I'm a 26-year-old man who's single — it's like, yes, I have sex."
He's Celebrating The Album's Release With Two "One-Night Only" Shows
On the night of the Harry's House release, Styles will perform the album live at UBS Arena at Belmont Park, New York. Four days later on May 24, he'll play another show at London's O2 Academy Brixton.
If you aren't in New York or London, never fear: Styles is continuing his Love On Tour trek in 2022. While it's unclear if he'll add Harry's House tracks to the set list, Styles will hit the UK and Europe in June and July, and Mexico and South America in November and December. In between, he'll play mini residencies in Toronto, New York, Austin, Chicago, and Los Angeles, the singer announced May 5.
This Is The Proudest He's Felt About An Album
As he explained to Better Homes & Gardens, Styles felt limitations with his first album because of the pressures to be taken seriously post-One Direction. With Fine Line, he said he was concerned with making "really big songs." Now, his inhibitions have lessened — and it's resulted in what he feels is his best work yet.
"This is kind of the proudest I've been of something I've made so far," Styles told Capital FM. "And I feel the most comfortable I've been with myself, and happiest with what I'm making, and the best I've felt about something that I'm making."
He continued, "I feel really happy at the moment. "It's the first time I feel like I'm making music, and putting music out, from a real place of personal freedom, and that is a really liberating place to be creating from. The process has easily been the most joyous of anything that I've experienced so far while making music, and I kind of want to continue that with putting it out."
If Styles' pride correlates to the music, Harry's House might just be his best work yet. We're happy to be invited over.