“This is a very special evening for me, for us,” Harry Styles told a crowd of about 20,000 people at the UBS Arena on Friday, and to millions via live broadcast on Apple Music. “We’re only in New York City for one night, and we’re going to play this new album for you the way it was meant to be heard: from start to finish.”
And with a giant neon chart of a house in the back, that’s what Styles and his tightly trained band did: the just-released third single album, “Harry’s House,” premiered at “One Night Only,” an arena-sized album that delivered a launch party to fans The most devoted Styles (even if the title is a bit of a misnomer: There’s a similar concert going on in London next week).
At any Styles concert, devotees exchange history like battle scars. “Which One Direction tour have you watched?” “Did you get a ticket to Hariwen?” “Are you still friends with the girls you met on Love on Tour?” But despite the concert’s name, the rarity isn’t a feature anyone would attribute to Harry Styles these days: The pandemic-delayed “Love on Tour” spread across North America for most of last fall, was the title of Coachella last month, and just dropped A new album, and along the way it was beloved by Anna Wintour, inspired by Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and boyish face by Christopher Nolan. Barely stopping, he’s back again, starting a European tour next month that returns to the United States for three months in the fall. Harry’s fan cups are fading away.
However, Friday night was the first time most of the new album had performed in front of a live audience, so the sense of an event was palpable, and for many it felt like a secret privilege.
But still, “Harry’s House” is a breakthrough, and performing an all-new album, even before a beloved audience, is undoubtedly a nerve-wracking challenge. Added to this, it’s a more intimate album than Fine Line, its illustrious predecessor, and many of its cheerful, upbeat songs aren’t fodder for a big stadium tour. Styles, who was dressed in a Gucci shirt and leather pants, looked a little nervous as he and his tightly trained band rolled through the album’s first few songs — in order — cruising from the compound hook of the album’s current hit song, “As It Was,” to tender performances like “Matilda” and light funk for tracks such as “Daydream” and “Cinema”. Crowds cheered in approval and many sang in venues, but most first heard the songs less than 24 hours ago.
Styles rarely spoke to the audience during the first few songs, but softened as the evening progressed. “How do we do so far?” He asked during one of several digressions where he talked about how important the album was to him, how it is a product of “everything we’ve all been through, collectively and individually, over the past two years,” how happy he was to present it to fans, and how comfortable he was to finally let it out into the world. “I mean, me Like him,” he said of the album. “But I’m so glad you liked it so far.”
As he did at Coachella, Styles accompanied three of his female band members to Boyfriends, the penultimate song on the album, for some close harmonies on acoustic guitars. The song’s style is new to him – a slow, meditative, earnest ballad – but the song’s lyrics are clearly aimed at the heart of his core fan base: the song is “for anyone who has or has not had anything to do with a friend.”
When the album came to an end, Styles told the audience that he’d be back soon to play some more songs, then dedicated the closing single “TK” to Rob Stringer, president of Sony Records. He said, “You might think I hate the boss of my record company but I don’t,” and spoke of Stringer’s generosity allowing Styles to borrow his house to work on the album, and noted that the song was written there. (That sound you hear is Rob Stringer’s phone ringing, as artists call to ask if they can also borrow his house.)
At the conclusion of the song, Styles briefly left the stage and then returned to play some older songs. While the previous forty-five minutes had seen low-key patterns (relatively) focus heavily on the new material, it was the appearance that he had come out of his cage. He and the band participated in many of his greatest hits – “Love of My Life”, “Adore You”, “Watermelon Sugar”, “Sign of the Times”, One Direction Show “What Makes You Beautiful”, “Kiwi” and even a repeat Crowd singing from “As It Was”—in a seemingly ribbed set: At one point, the band seemed disoriented and levitated on almost heavy metal crevices as Styles ventured out into the aisles that led from the stage toward the center of the arena about twenty times that night. He left the stage at least twice but came back to play another song, and the audience eventually rushed out waving first a Ukrainian flag, then his usual rainbow flag.
The two halves of the concert – “Harry’s house” and stadium-sized songs – featured the differences between his new and old material prominently. How can he reconcile the two on his next months-long tour? Harrelore.
Additional reporting by Jim Black.
[ad_2]
