[4.5/5 stars]

The Grammy Award-winning artist, Harry Styles, released his fourth studio album Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally, March 6. The album has recurring amounts of EDM, synth-heavy beats, and similarities to ’80s music. The album spans 42 minutes and consists of 12 songs. Sonically, the album creates a cheerful tone mixed with Styles’ personal experiences. Songs like “Ready, Steady, Go!” embodies a combination of quickly paced hi-hats and repetitive guitar strings, amongst layered vocals featured on the track. “Taste Back” showcases the album’s theme of disco/house-like beats, alongside lower bass playing in the background.  

One of my favorite songs off the album was “Dance No More,” which is one of the funkier, danceable tracks. With looped electronic beats and background voices of a crowd clapping along. To me, this is one of the most memorable tracks off the album and leaves the listener wanting more. This track especially stood out to me because it was a song that I hadn’t heard from Styles’ discography before. 

Although tracks like these are enjoyable, the usual element of lyrical complexity, which is one of Styles’ best features throughout his discography, was slightly lacking throughout the album. 

Despite the more joyous tracks on the album, it does have its fair share of quieter moments. Songs like “Paint by Numbers” and “The Waiting Game” offer an essence of vulnerability that puts itself apart from other tracks on the album. Track 6 of the album, “The Waiting Game,” exposes Styles’ anxieties and repetitive cycle that comes along with unrequited love in relationships. 

Track 11, “Paint by Numbers,” offers a slower, more mellow atmosphere because its synth chords are replaced with a trumpet solo weaved in-between strummed guitar chords. This track features the lyric “When they put an image in your head, and now you’re stuck with it,” which ties back to the singer’s teenage years of living in the spotlight through the entertainment industry. 

The ending track, “Carla’s song” looped guitar strings, a combination of both the synth pop elements and creates a nostalgic sound with its repetitive lyric of “It’s all waiting there for you,” as a way to close off the album. 

In general, this album exceeded my expectations because of its elements of danceable songs alongside the synth pop, but also moments of vulnerability. It’s been four years since his last album, Harry’s House, was released, but for me, it’s safe to say that this album was worth the wait.