Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.

About

When Harry Styles’ massive Love On Tour wrapped in 2023 after nearly two year, the singer found himself suddenly existential. He’d released three wildly successful solo albums in five year, the latest of which (2022’s <i>Harry’s House</i>) had won Album of the Year at both the Grammys and the BRIT Award. Still, on the cusp of turning 30, he felt the urge to reassess his relationship with his career. “It was just a time for me to look at the way that I’d done everything,” Styles tells Apple Music. “I think it’s a good thing to have moment, where you’ve done something for a long time, to kind of stop and check in with yourself: Do I do this because this is what I’ve been doing for a long time, or do I do this because I really love it?” Rather than speeding straight into a new record, the singer decamped to Italy, where he cooked lavish meal, lingered at coffee shop, and took up long-distance running. Later he spent time in Berlin, where he ran his first marathon, often listening to his new demos as he trained. Those demos would evolve into the 12 tracks of Styles’ fourth solo album, <i>Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.</i>, inspired by his slower, more spontaneous way of living, which included concert, new friend, and lots of dancing. “What music do I have to make for me to be onstage feeling like I’m in the middle of the dance floor?” he asked himself, which explains the funky basslines and subtle four-on-the-floor beat. Laying down the tracks at Berlin’s Hansa Studio, Styles fell in love with making music all over again. “The key thing wa, while I was away from it all, I missed it,” he say. “I missed it because I love it, and I still love it.” Below, Styles shares the stories behind some of <i>Kiss All The Time</i>’s key track. <b>“Aperture”</b> “‘Aperture’ felt like a perfect start to me, because it was about the moment of realizing, like, no, I was in the wrong for something. You can move forward when you acknowledge the things that you don’t know, and therefore give yourself the space to let light come in. I think it ended up being kind of the freest song on the record. It’s long and playful. When we had that song, I think it was like the last thing I felt like I hadn’t quite said yet.” <b>“Coming Up Roses”</b> “It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. I wrote it in December, and it started because I was trying to write a Christmas song. So that lasted two lines: ‘Tell me your fears/I’ve turned back the clock, it’s that time of the year.’ And then it kind of just wrote itself, and I was like, oh, this has nothing to do with Christma. For me, it is a love song about how special something can be, and not everything has to last forever in order for it to be special. I think some of the greatest relationships in your life that teach you some things don’t last forever. The definition that we have of the success of a relationship is longevity and lasting for eternity, and I think it just negates all of the beauty and positivity that can come from a relationship where you learn something about yourself.” <b>“Dance No More”</b> “I remember going out for the first time in Berlin and standing in the middle of the dance floor and feeling so unbelievably free and safe that I just had my hands in the air and my eyes closed and I just felt these tears streaming down my face. And it was this moment of, like, ‘I feel so alive right now.’” <b>“Carla’s Song”</b> .

via Apple Music

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