On March 23rd, Harry Styles revealed on Instagram that he would be releasing a new album on May 20th titled, “Harry’s House”. A few days later, he posted a photo of himself with the caption, “As It Was. April 1”, announcing the name and release date of his first single from the future album, along with an upcoming music video.
Within the first seconds of “As It Was”, we hear Harry Styles’ goddaughter’s voice saying, “Come on Harry, we wanna say good night to you”, followed by the start of the song. This song is very upbeat and on-brand for Harry Styles, in terms of his expressive and fun sound. Although the song seems to have a happy and free vibe, most of the lyrics are on the deeper side and relate to Harry’s life. Here are some of his most personal lyrics from the song:
- “Harry, you’re no good alone. Why are you sitting at home on the floor? What kind of pills are you on?”
- “Your daddy lives by himself, he just wants to know that you’re well”
- “Leave America, two kids follow her, I don’t wanna talk about who’s doin’ it first”
The main lyric, “You know it’s not the same as it was”, insinuates a permanent change in a relationship between two people. Some fans believe that certain lyrics reflect the strained relationship between his divorced parents. The music video also reflects this idea of a changed relationship with Harry and a female actress constantly being separated from each other. However, Harry has not elaborated on the true meaning of this song.
All in all, I think this song was the perfect single for his upcoming album. Similar to “Watermelon Sugar”, his last album’s single, this song gives us a fun beat to prepare for the rest of the album. I’ve had this song on repeat since it was released, and I highly recommend that everyone should do the same.