As It Was by Harry Styles – Review
As one of the biggest Harry Styles fans around, I was obviously incredibly excited when he announced his heavily anticipated first release after two years, in the follow-up to his new album ‘Harry’s House’ coming out in May. The 80s inspired single ‘As It Was’ is an up-tempo synth-pop number, reflecting ‘Take on Me’ by a-ha in its instrumental. It’s difficult to follow-up to such a masterpiece as Fine Line, however he has come back even stronger than before.
The catchy chorus echoes Harry singing “We know it’s not the same as it was”, and despite its upbeat nature, the lyrics are much deeper. In the second verse, Harry calls himself out: “Answer the phone, ‘Harry you’re no good alone, why are you sitting at home on the floor? What kind of pills are you on?’” He says the song is about “embracing change, losing yourself, and then finding yourself again”, and being written during the pandemic, this is very fitting. At the beginning of the song, a young child’s voice says, “Come on Harry we wanna say goodnight to you!” this is actually Harry’s goddaughter who called him every night before bed. He put it in front of the song and fell in love with it, which gives it a unique and personal touch.
Harry says As It Was is his favourite thing he’s made so far, and I agree. It’s different to anything he has made before, however it still screams Harry Styles. The music video sees Styles running and dancing on a turntable in a sparkly red jumpsuit accompanied by a woman in a blue jumpsuit. All of Harry’s music videos are so well produced, and As It Was is no exception. At the time of writing, the music video already has over 11 million views on YouTube and it was only released twelve hours ago, so As It Was is expected to top the charts and be his most popular release ever.
As It Was has been on repeat for me since its release, and I expect it to be for the foreseeable future. I think the song will attract new fans to Harry’s music, and his popularity will soar to new highs; everyone will have the chorus to the song in their heads for a long time. If As It Was is an insight into what the album is going to sound like, ‘Harry’s House’ has the potential to be the best album of 2022. This year is going to be an incredible year for Harry, who is touring in the UK in June. I am beyond excited about what he is going to release next.
Chloe Mullis