The Prague Post - Vulnerable, carnal and ever the charmer, Harry Styles returns with new album

EUR -
AED 4.308802
AFN 80.408983
ALL 97.80021
AMD 448.941926
ANG 2.099412
AOA 1075.735225
ARS 1469.36399
AUD 1.788567
AWG 2.111585
AZN 1.99454
BAM 1.953798
BBD 2.360392
BDT 142.50399
BGN 1.956028
BHD 0.442252
BIF 3483.16083
BMD 1.173103
BND 1.497578
BOB 8.077758
BRL 6.549316
BSD 1.169307
BTN 100.131831
BWP 15.61893
BYN 3.825796
BYR 22992.819458
BZD 2.348204
CAD 1.604459
CDF 3385.575019
CHF 0.932459
CLF 0.029024
CLP 1113.791316
CNY 8.423173
CNH 8.421982
COP 4718.220401
CRC 589.605939
CUC 1.173103
CUP 31.08723
CVE 110.152607
CZK 24.634931
DJF 208.177588
DKK 7.461158
DOP 70.099371
DZD 152.187907
EGP 58.062775
ERN 17.596546
ETB 162.205469
FJD 2.6315
FKP 0.863595
GBP 0.861973
GEL 3.179218
GGP 0.863595
GHS 12.193128
GIP 0.863595
GMD 83.89163
GNF 10144.778573
GTQ 8.984832
GYD 244.470556
HKD 9.208706
HNL 30.5692
HRK 7.536368
HTG 153.434099
HUF 398.893734
IDR 19042.512303
ILS 3.882443
IMP 0.863595
INR 100.49223
IQD 1531.424369
IRR 49416.965359
ISK 143.400414
JEP 0.863595
JMD 186.877728
JOD 0.831742
JPY 171.664272
KES 151.506134
KGS 102.58794
KHR 4694.230287
KMF 493.876307
KPW 1055.78094
KRW 1609.192787
KWD 0.358407
KYD 0.974198
KZT 606.246254
LAK 25188.084824
LBP 104745.323937
LKR 351.448407
LRD 234.390841
LSL 20.868989
LTL 3.463868
LVL 0.709598
LYD 6.322549
MAD 10.557923
MDL 19.814782
MGA 5174.675949
MKD 61.542241
MMK 2462.990707
MNT 4207.691981
MOP 9.452415
MRU 46.607434
MUR 53.047574
MVR 18.069151
MWK 2027.11437
MXN 21.841768
MYR 4.988617
MZN 75.031475
NAD 20.837361
NGN 1791.99709
NIO 43.016292
NOK 11.806215
NPR 160.212577
NZD 1.950243
OMR 0.451063
PAB 1.169007
PEN 4.150048
PGK 4.904059
PHP 66.255721
PKR 333.75194
PLN 4.246257
PYG 9060.75493
QAR 4.262651
RON 5.077538
RSD 117.170737
RUB 91.378131
RWF 1682.22975
SAR 4.39988
SBD 9.780071
SCR 17.215026
SDG 704.460806
SEK 11.145136
SGD 1.501044
SHP 0.921875
SLE 26.396564
SLL 24599.388362
SOS 668.112601
SRD 43.698679
STD 24280.86431
SVC 10.228476
SYP 15252.604025
SZL 20.836562
THB 38.204411
TJS 11.31036
TMT 4.117592
TND 3.419111
TOP 2.747521
TRY 46.99861
TTD 7.937833
TWD 34.306228
TZS 3055.933604
UAH 48.862827
UGX 4196.717912
USD 1.173103
UYU 47.291746
UZS 14860.773588
VES 133.271897
VND 30632.652965
VUV 140.119958
WST 3.227197
XAF 655.282801
XAG 0.032054
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.170369
XDR 0.814962
XOF 655.288382
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.714974
ZAR 20.811082
ZMK 10559.327089
ZMW 28.436985
ZWL 377.738698
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Vulnerable, carnal and ever the charmer, Harry Styles returns with new album
Vulnerable, carnal and ever the charmer, Harry Styles returns with new album / Photo: Angela Weiss - AFP

Vulnerable, carnal and ever the charmer, Harry Styles returns with new album

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.

Text size:

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.

- Emotional, but make it sexy -

But he's much more than a bleeding heart -- Styles is thirsty.

After the thinly veiled ode to cunnilingus he gave with his second album's hit "Watermelon Sugar," the artist's lustiest references on "Harry's House" include wet dreams, orgasms, erotic choking and side boob.

"Green eyes, fried rice," he sings on the bop "Music for A Sushi Restaurant."

"I could cook an egg on you."

It's just one of many lyrical choices that read peculiar but in practice just works, a testament to the artist's sharpened poetic chops and burgeoning willingness to bare the contours of his desires.

Styles is thought to be dating Olivia Wilde, who cast him in the forthcoming psychological thriller "Don't Worry Darling" which she directed.

"I bring the pop to the cinema / You pop when we get intimate," he sings in the chorus of the pulsating disco track "Cinema" -- a sex ballad of a song that appears to reference his relationship with her.

But for all his suggestive lyrics Styles -- whose ascent into celebrity has paralleled a growing scrutiny of the way famous artists are hounded over their personal lives -- prefers to keep his private matters just that.

He's faced probing over his sexuality and love life for years, but in a recent interview he said he finds these lines of questioning "outdated."

"The whole point of where we should be heading, which is toward accepting everybody and being more open, is that it doesn't matter," he told Better Homes and Gardens in an interview published last month. "It's about not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes you're checking."

That attitude is certainly working for Styles, who as his third album drops counts himself among the globe's most endearing pop stars.

His consummate likability was on full display as he headlined last month's Coachella festival, donning a chest-baring, multi-colored disco ball of a jumpsuit to tease his new music before a sea of screaming, hormone-addled fans.

"It's big in here, innit?" he quipped, laying on the charm he's imbued into his music -- coy yet sexy, modest but glam, a modern pop star on top of the world.

N.Kratochvil--TPP