If you’ve been on the Internet recently, you’ll know that Harry Styles is doing things. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Twitter are nothing short of that one GIF where little SpongeBobs are running around and throwing papers while everything’s on fire. Harry’s House, Styles’ long-awaited third album, is finally here – and we’re getting the first single this week.
Announced this past Monday, “As It Was” is slated to hit the UK on Friday, April 1, at midnight – meaning 7 pm tonight for fans on America’s east coast. The mysterious single will be accompanied by a music video, rumored to feature over seven minutes of Styles dancing through empty streets in a flashy, red getup that promises yet another sexy kickoff to a new era. Fans have also speculated that the song was teased in a reversed version of the album’s trailer, as well as by a You Are Home Twitter post that cryptically states, “in this world, it’s just us, you know it’s not the same as it was.”
Since its first appearance as newspaper ads earlier this month, You Are Home has always been cryptic. Every day around noon, the social media presence will post poetic sayings and half-hidden images on Twitter and Instagram, respectively. Not to mention their discord server, which allows users to bounce around different chats that represent a kitchen, hallway and more.
For fans of Styles, though, his connection to You Are Home was instantly recognized. Call it a weird gut instinct, but when something this creative and unexplainable happens, we just know it’s him. As for the true meaning of You Are Home? Well, we’re still trying to figure that one out. The popular theory, however, is that Styles has been hinting at his third album for a while now.
From Harry Styles (2017) to Fine Line (2019), there’s an abundance of references to various rooms and objects found within the house. Some are seen in song titles such as “Meet Me in the Hallway,” “From the Dining Table” and “Lights Up.” Others come in the form of song lyrics such as “broke a finger knocking on your bedroom door,” “the fridge light washes this room white,” “kiss in the kitchen like it’s a dance floor” and so on. The most notable and obvious references are the songs “Sweet Creature” and “Canyon Moon,” in which Styles cries out, “you bring me home” and “I’m going home.” Overall, it seems that the singer is just as obsessed with the home as he is with fruit.
Some fans have also noticed that during Styles’ most recent tour, he ended shows by saying things like “Are you ready to go home? Are you ready to take it home?” and “Send me home!” More on the nose was Styles’ choice to dress as Dorothy for night one of Harryween, a two-night concert/costume party at Madison Square Garden.
And if there really is no place like home, then Harry’s House is where I want to be.
With the album coming out on May 20, there are so many questions to be answered. Are the pictures of Styles in a moving bed from a future music video? Will Harry’s House be a rock album as we’ve hoped, or something softer? Did Styles purposefully name it after the Joni Mitchell song? What’s with his new profile pic? And, most importantly, will “Medicine” finally be released???
The one thing that I think is certain is that it’s been Harry’s House this. Entire. Time. That, or the coincidences are too clever for their own good. Either way, “As It Was” will be our foot in the You-Are-Home door to Styles’ new era – and I just can’t wait to be welcomed in.