Taken as a whole, the animating idea behind Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally is that the music is Harry Styles’ gift to himself — a celebration of liberation and following one’s instinct. Its charm is in how it lifts the rest of us, too.
In the liner notes for his fourth studio album — which arrives Friday — Styles takes to thanking “those who inspire me to make anything” and “those who helped me know when to say yes.” It reads as a love letter to the voices and impulses that shape the cross-generational superstar’s inner world, a reminder that freedom is sweeter when shared. Its contents follow suit, with songs that move through romantic grief, restlessness and self-actualisation, but all come back to a recurring mantra: Sometimes, nightclubs can hold the power to transform a person forever.
On a spontaneous night out, the magic may happen in the hands of the DJ, but it relies on the energy and connection of a community of believers bound up in the music. In the time since Styles last released a record — the gleaming Harry’s House debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and scooped album of the year at the 2023 Grammys — he has been spotted outside Berlin superclub Berghain and losing himself at a Jamie xx gig, while also recuperating in Italy after a Billboard Boxscore-smashing world tour that rolled on for two years.
These moments have revealed Styles living far outside the glare of the camera. As such, rather than locking in on the pristine, highly stylised pop arrangements of Harry’s House, on Kiss All the Time, Styles fleshes out his introspection more inventively, weaving in acoustic instrumentation, jagged beats and bursts of feedback that thrive on the push and pull of delayed gratification. There is a fresh immediacy, even a hint of intensity, to some of these songs, if not necessarily the sense of release that the Billboard Hot 100-topping lead single “Aperture” foreshadowed.
Guided by trusted collaborator Kid Harpoon, the flashes of ‘70s guitar and ‘80s hooks that characterise much of Styles’ earlier output deepen into explorations of rock, disco and electronic house, often resting on the thrill of combustion by fusing opposing sonic elements. Drawing clear inspiration from LCD Soundsystem or even the ecstatic catharsis of Hot Chip’s A Bath Full of Ecstasy era, the record feels explorative and intimate and, at points, explosively alive.
As much as he’s dominated the mainstream over the past few years, Styles appears to be following some fresh curiosities and crafting new sounds that feel uncharted for him. The results are uneven in places, but perhaps that’s what makes them so compelling.
While all of Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally is worth absorbing, read Billboard‘s breakdown and preliminary ranking of every song on Styles’ latest album below.
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“Taste Back”
You could argue Styles has long written in an elusive way. Pockets of his back catalogue are laced with fleeting confessions: 2019’s “Lights Up” danced around sexuality; “As It Was” nodded to his parents’ divorce. With specific references to Paris and day drinking, the wistful “Taste Back” is primed for close reading from fans in search of deeper lyrical meanings, a delicious collision of lust and longing.
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“Are You Listening Yet?”
If Kiss All The Time has a central flaw, it’s the occasional sense that Styles’ lyrics feel a little forced or repeatedly hammered: “If you must join a movement/ Make sure there’s dancing,” he sings on “Are You Listening Yet?” More striking than the album’s loud nightlife influence is how often the music mirrors the disrupted tone of the thematic mood, as it does with this track’s see-sawing melody and use of sprechgesang.
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“American Girls”
A natural ease courses through “American Girls,” though it inches a little too closely to the classic rock cosplay that defined the subtler tracks of Styles’ eponymous 2017 debut: melodies so light and airy you could float away on them. Here, there is a light merengue sway and a call-and-response chorus, but the track lacks the genuine experimental spark found elsewhere on much of Kiss All The Time, leaving it feeling charming but too safe in comparison.
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“The Waiting Game”
“The Waiting Game” is a sweeping and lilting song that conjures the uncanny feeling of a dream. Blending digitised strings with an acoustic guitar, it’s sweet and a little unsettling, and could be read as a treatise on trying to balance the demands of fame with some kind of normality. This is where the wider themes of the album — primarily, the tension between personal desire and external expectation — come into focus.
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“Pop”
A sure-footed strut around sex, drugs and dancing, there’s an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” familiarity to “Pop,” which nakedly recalls the glitzy, sauntering haze of Harry’s House track “Cinema” in its rhythmic swagger. The bounce of the bass makes the chorus feel dynamic, which maps onto the song’s wider story of how, in the thrill of the moment, the body can’t resist bopping along to fluttering BPMs.
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“Paint By Numbers”
At times, the more understated passages of Kiss All The Time can feel a little low stakes, as if they aren’t given the space to properly unfurl amid denser production elsewhere. “Paint By Numbers,” however, stands apart for how it feels a little frayed around the edges; it feels potent and roomy, as if it were laid down in an inspired, emotional rush. “It’s a little bit complicated when they put an image in your head,” Styles sings at one point. “And now you’re stuck with it.”
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“Season 2 Weight Loss”
Not an obvious highlight on first listen, “Season 2 Weight Loss” sprawls at an impressive scale, all apprehensive drums and weighted silences. Lyrically, Styles burrows into indecisiveness and intrusive thoughts before a trip-hoppy arrangement pulls his earthy falsetto back down to earth with a jolt. The track is delivered with elegance and care, a reminder that voices don’t always need to be big to be strong.
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“Aperture”
An icy synth melts with distorted guitar, evolving into something that sounds not unlike a goosebump-raising riff from an EDM hit echoing around an empty club. On “Aperture,” the effect is pure melancholy: lyrics about searching for solace in the middle of a dancefloor are heightened not just by Styles’ use of his lower register, but also by the musical backing. His final cry of “Time won’t wait on me” carries a flicker of heartfelt desperation.
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“Dance No More”
Feel invincible in the club one day, crash-out the next. Still, on “Dance No More,” Styles is in love with the world and people around him, he’s on a much higher plane. As starlit, spiralling grooves descend into delirium, he discovers that music feels “heaven-sent,” and while out on the dancefloor, there’s “no difference between tears and sweat.” Wondrousness awaits in the bridge as the tempo builds and repeated vocal chants hit harder.
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“Coming Up Roses”
A celebration of new love haunted by the spectre of past insecurities, “Coming Up Roses” is a masterclass of ambivalence, with a yearning, string-assisted bridge that settles beautifully into the final chorus. Arranged by Grammy-winning conductor Jules Buckley, Styles’ voice sounds more commanding than ever, reaching a soaring peak as, thematically, the tension between an appreciation for the present and an inability to escape his own head comes to a boil. Tissues at the ready…
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“Ready, Steady, Go!”
Need to snap yourself out of a funk? Spin “Ready, Steady, Go!,” on which the drums judder and twitch, metallic slap bass clashes with a flurry of Spanish guitar and a repeated vocal line twists and bends off-key. Striking a balance between claustrophobia and pop in a way not too dissimilar to Fontaines D.C.’s “Starburster,” this number is genuinely thrilling, with every beat landing like a pulse in the throat. The tension never quite resolves, only coiling tighter and tighter.
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“Carla’s Song”
A spiritual successor to Styles’ joyful — albeit bittersweet — mega-hit “As It Was,” resplendent closer “Carla’s Song” cranks up the album’s cinematic scope: a bright swell of synths, layers of rippling piano and Styles’ enunciation effusive and radiant with his vocal cascading in from every angle. The song is bound to feel even more enveloping live, especially when the crowd takes over the key refrain of “It’s all waiting there for you.” This summer, on tour, we must heed its call.
