The Songs: 

“Music For A Sushi Restaurant”:

First off, I have to call out how the chorus sounds awfully similar to the Ant Farm theme from Disney, which makes me wonder if they did in fact get the riff from the show. I love the loud bass in the beginning; it sets off a cool tone for the song. Now, aside from those little things, I want to talk about the song as a whole. I honestly am not a big fan of how the song sounds more like a sitcom theme than a Harry Styles song, especially the trumpets and a cappella voices during the chorus. I really am hoping the whole album isn’t like this song because I love Harry's usual style of music. While I like to commend artists changing up their style every once in a while, I don't especially like how Harry did it for this track.

“Late Night Talking”:

I'm getting some more of the Forever 21 store music here towards the middle of the song, but the beginning of it is cute and melodic. Based on the album cover, the track names, and the songs I’ve heard so far, I can tell this will be a more upbeat, dancy album than what Harry usually does. I like when he has a few songs like that on an album, but when they make up the entire album, it isn't my cup of tea.

“Grapejuice”:

I’m already liking the song twenty seconds in. I’m glad there's a change of pace from the prior tracks and it's giving me a more enjoyable melody. I’m a sucker for the radio voice effect singers use, and I love how Harry uses it throughout the song. This track isn’t anything special compared to a lot of my favorite songs that he's made, but I do like it much better than the first two songs I listened to. 

“As It Was”:

I heard bits of this song on Tiktok since it was released as a single at first, so I already had some opinions on the song. It's a great summer song. Though I’m not a huge fan of the little high pitched beats before each verse and chorus, I love pretty much everything else about the song. Scratch that—when the high-pitched beats come back towards the end of the song, I actually feel like I’ve grown to like it. Overall, this song has a catchy chorus, clever bridge, and beautifully-sung verses that set up the song very well. 

“Daylight”:

I'm getting some Khalid vibes off of this song, which helps it seem more summery. The distorted voice after the chorus ends doesn’t seem very Harry Styles to me, but I think it's a cool addition to the song and shows me that he’s trying new things with his music. I like the last third of the song a lot, more than the first two-thirds of it, and I really love the chorus that's basically just that cool guitar noise.

“Little Freak”:

I really have nothing to say about this song because I genuinely didn't want to listen all the 

way through. I found myself very bored, and wanted to skip forward to try and find an interesting part (but didn’t and waited it out). I ended up only liking the last little guitar riff that sounded a bit like “Blackbird” by the Beatles, which was nice to hear. 

“Matilda”:

I love love love the guitar at the beginning of this song because it gives me huge Nick Drake vibes. This is my favorite song so far because of the beautiful guitar melody Harry created. The lyrics are great and all, and Harry sounds the same as he always does, but the guitar just really stands out to me. There's a very cute little bridge towards the end that brings a good close to the track.

“Cinema”:

I have to say I am feeling pretty disappointed about this album and this song is only adding to the stack of similar-sounding slow tracks Harry has given us so far. I’m not getting any songs that stand out (besides "Matilda"). Harry’s prior albums have given me countless bangers and this album just wasn't so far. I am really hoping the next songs I listen to are not like this one, and make me want to add them to my playlist.  

“Daydreaming”:

The beginning has a cool upbeat vibe and continues the vibe of summer the album has been giving off. I love the chorus; it's definitely a lot more interesting than most of the ones I have been hearing from him and I actually wanted to hear the whole song. I genuinely enjoyed this song and was glad there were now more than two tracks on the album that I liked.

“Keep Driving”:

This is a good song—nothing too special, but it has a cute little melody and sync beat. It conveniently sounds like a great driving song (or beach song). “Should we just keep driving?” was a nice idea for a song, and a relaxing listen.

“Satellite”:

I didn't really enjoy this song. It's a nice melodic summer song I’d put in the background of something, but probably wouldn’t put on just to listen to it. I thought the chorus was a bit bland; in fact, the only part of the song that I really liked was the bridge.

“Boyfriends”:

My first thought was that this song sounded a little like Simon and Garfunkel and created a peaceful mindset with the beautiful guitar and vocals. I also noticed that the little ba-da ba-da da at the end of each verse is the exact riff from “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby Stills Nash and Young. This is a very beautiful song and I’m glad Harry added at least one song like this to the album.

“Love Of My Life”:

I love the beginning because it gets right in your face and starts out very powerful. The melody sounds like “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s, but overly so because it took me a second to really hear it. Harry’s voice sounds great in this, especially with the melismatic on certain words. The piano at the end is a great end to the song, as well as to the album.    

My Thoughts On The Album:

Considering that this was my first time ever listening to the album (unlike most of the albums I review), I noticed more things about the songs than I would have if I had already heard them—sometimes, the more you listen to a song, the more you like it, and many parts you would normally dislike brush right past you. I think I was so critical because of the high standards Harry has set for himself with his past two albums, which were packed with a lot of amazing songs, and I felt let down by many mediocre songs in this album. That aside, I can easily say I enjoyed the second half of the album much more than the first, and many of those songs had really grown on me by the time I finished all of my reviews. To finish off my last review of the year, I am happy to say that Harry has provided me with many new songs for my summer playlist.