The first single from Harry’s House is a both a straight-from-the-heart cry and an irresistible dance-floor challenge
Harry Styles has dropped his much-anticipated new song "As It Was". It is the lead single and video for their upcoming third album, Harry House, due out May 20 - their first since the 2019 blockbuster, Fine Line. This is one of his most emotionally powerful songs ever. He sings about coping with personal changes with the chorus, "It's just us in this world / You know it ain't what it was."
It's a daring change for Styles, unlike anything else he's done musically before. They closed their first two albums of eras with grand renditions, "Sign of the Times" and "Lights Up". But "As It Was" is more nakedly vulnerable, a straight-up cry that's also an irresistible dance-floor challenge. It begins with the children's voice "Come on, Harry, we want to say good night to you!"
But the song delves into the depths of feelings of isolation and sadness. The song is a plea: "Answer the phone / Harry, you're not good alone / Why are you sitting on the floor at home? / What kind of pills are you taking?"
"As It Was" turns into eighties-style synth-pop in the vein of A-Ha or Depeche Mode. The synth hook sounds like a distorted steel drum, with a trolling chime at the end—Stiles is credited with playing "tubular bells." His vocals are bittersweet, almost stingingly poignant, with the intimate vibe of a journal entry. Yet it feels like it's about a relationship, filled with secret confessions shared between the two men—the first time she's started an album era with a love song.
This is my first taste of their stunning new Harry House, which is even better than you expected. The 13-track Harry's House will be released on vinyl, CD and cassette globally on May 20, available on preorder now. The vinyl will include exclusives like Sea Grass Green (on Harry's website) and Target's Translucent Yellow; There is also a CD photobook with 32 new photos. Later this month, he is leading the Coachella Festival over the weekend of April 15 and 22, where he will debut "As It Was" live. This summer he returns on the road for the international segment of the Love On Tour, starting 11 June with Mitski in Glasgow, and lasting until December.
The "As It Was" video evokes a sense of the song's personal conflict, with Styles and a partner literally walking in circles, fitting in to sentiments like "Gravity's Holding Me Back". It was filmed in London by Ukrainian director Tanu Muino. As she says in a statement, "It was lovely to shoot her, because it was one of the happiest days of my life, but on the second day of shooting, my country Ukraine was invaded, so you can imagine." Can't imagine the crazy feelings we had at that time. Shooting. Me and my team from Ukraine have put so much love in this video, and you can see it on screen.
Styles co-wrote "As It Was" with his trusted longtime collaborators Kidd Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, who produced both. Guitar wingman Mitch Rowland is on drums with Harpoon. As Styles told Rolling Stone when The Fine Line came out, "If you're going with session writers or something, you spend a day or two in there, and there's no way that person can really I care about your albums as much as you do. Because they're in something else tomorrow." That's why he is unusually devoted to his team. "We'll be bound by the music we love and the things we're going through. It's not like one person in the group is like, 'Okay, no, I don't talk about this. I just beat .'"
When Paul McCartney - one of Styles' main protagonists - released his solo debut, he summed it up as "Home, Family, Love". The title and cover of Harry House evoke similar themes, as does the secret You Are Home site, with daily messages such as "Whisper your houseplants / Sing to your neighbors." The vinyl album's gatefold, as teased on their website yesterday, features a very Linda McCartney-style picture of home life: a garden breakfast table for two with coffee, eggs, and an orange. (If you've been following Harry's Fruit Universe, there's one more to check your list.)
Styles has always made a point of mixing pop glam with raw emotion. As he told Rolling Stone in the Fine Line era, "It's all about having sex and feeling sad." It perfectly describes "as it was"—the moment when being in love forces you to face some of your baggage, feelings you usually hide from yourself. "As It Was" came out nearly five years after the start of his solo career. (He dropped "Sign of the Times" on April 7, 2017.) Yet this sounds like an artist just starting out. "As It Was" is much more than a creative pinnacle - it's a fearless leap into a new era.