“Oh, what a gift it is to be noticed,” sings Harry Styles on his highly anticipated fourth studio album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. “But it’s nothing to do with me.” The track in question, the eloquently titled “Paint By Numbers”, sees the beloved singer-songwriter liken the rigors of fame and massive success to a lifetime of learning how to paint by numbers and “watching the colors run”. He waxes poetic about “holding the weight of the American children”, whose hearts he’ll break, a smooth reference to his career beginnings as part of the 2010s boy band One Direction.
For a record whose title seems to promise more of Styles‘ signature blend of soft rock with mainstream pop, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally is surprisingly subdued, and at times downright dull. One can’t help but wonder if that was exactly the singer’s vision.
Pop songs in the 2020s have gotten shorter and shorter as dependence on revenue from social media soundbites continues to grow. Styles tries to get the best of both worlds on his latest LP: some tracks surpass the rare four-minute mark, while others remain comfortably in the two-and-a-half-minute range. “Paint By Numbers” is in the latter category. While it’s easy to miss in comparison to somewhat-flashy singles like “American Girls” or “Aperture”, it’s the one moment on the album where Styles lets his mask fall and reminds us that he’s always in on the joke: he knows how he made his name in the music industry, and he’s not ashamed of it.
On the other hand, the singer is tired of carrying the weight of other people’s expectations of him, whether from managers or his large, loyal fanbase. Perhaps he was due for a record of random musings that are inherently unpredictable, rather than crafting another album similar to his predecessor, Harry’s House. Indeed, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally reads more like a personal mantra rather than this LP’s thesis statement.
For an album with such a title, one could have expected more understated synthpop songs tinged with new wave and soft rock influences, similar to “Late Night Talking” or “Music For a Sushi Restaurant”. Instead, Harry Styles released a body of work that is more akin to a demo of rough cuts in comparison to anything else in his existing solo discography. He cleverly places a track titled “Are You Listening Yet?” four songs into the record, as if to signal to the listener that they need to start taking notes on either what he’s trying to say in this particular instance, or with this LP as a whole.
“You keep forgetting your mantra, which thoughts you had on your own,” sings Styles. “Ignoring all of your friends at the end of their rope.” The most memorable track on the record, aside from him getting unexpectedly deep on “Paint By Numbers”, is “Coming Up Roses”, an ode to the types of romantic affairs marked by youth as Styles enters his 30s. “Just for tonight, let’s go hangover chasing,” he sings. “If we stay the course, we could get it right / But I’m not devoid of an appetite.”
More than anything, Styles sounds tired on Kiss All the Time. Disco Occasionally, which is not to say unoriginal or less than innovative. Rather, he sounds tired of trying to check boxes on someone else’s list, and he’s trying to figure out his own sound as an adult man in his third decade as an entertainer.
In “Carla’s Song”, the closing track, the singer refers to a bridge that will lead to “troubled waters”. Although reminiscent of “Matilda” from Harry’s House in that it appears to be about a subject other than himself, Styles sounds as if he is subconsciously delivering a message to himself as he sings melancholically over the chorus, “It’s all waiting there for you / Can you hear that voice delivering the news?”
Perhaps in singing about other people, whether it’s his friends who are all in love with American girls or ignoring others who are at the end of their ropes, the singer has actually been singing about himself all along. “You’ve got to wonder if there’s a reason to believe,” he ponders on “Paint By Numbers”. In kissing all the time and discoing occasionally—with very little of the latter actually taking place on this record—Harry Styles, like the rest of us, might just be trying to find something real to believe in.