In light of Harry Styles releasing his single “As It Was”, AND announcing a new album, “Harry’s House”, coming May 20th, I wanted to do a deep dive into all of the hints he gave us.
I definitely dove in deep with this one; joining the discord group that started it all, reading through all 132 posts from @youarehome.hs, an Instagram account dedicated to this very topic, scrolling for hours on Twitter and Tiktok, and reading so, so many articles on the topic. Let’s just say, I now feel more informed about a Harry Styles happening than I have ever been in my life.
Alright, let’s jump right into the hints we were given and what some fans made of them.
Suspicion started with a Discord group called “You Are Home.” Some fans found it, unsure of what it meant or what it was about. Soon thereafter, the youarehome.co website was created, simply showcasing a cream-colored door that was shut, and nothing else. At the bottom of the page, however, it does say “© 2022 Sony Music Entertainment”.
I believe the same day, or a day after, the @youarehome Twitter was created, linking the Discord group in their bio, and the next day, March 18th, they posted “you are home.” The following day, March 19th, an Instagram account with the same username was created. They immediately posted a picture of a door; the same door found on the website, but this time it was partially open with a stem of some sort in the background.
Fans also started noticing ads in newspapers around the world. The ads were promoting “youarehome.co” accompanied by various artwork, all of which depict household features or items that are upside down. They figured out it had to be in relation to HS, but no one knew how yet. Then, at 4 pm every day, a tweet would be published (fans are assuming they are song lyrics), along with an Instagram post showing a different image on the inside of the door.
I want to now address the Instagram posts and what they are theorized to mean, in addition to some of the tweets that are thought to potentially go along with them.
Day 1: Stalk of a plant
- Refers to the book “Nature and Selected Essays” by Ralph Waldo Emmerson
- Tweet: “whisper to your houseplants, sing to your neighbors”
Day 2: Ombre Colors
- Refers to another book, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami
- Tweet: “what happens between colours”
(Both books have been seen being read by HS)
Day 3: Earth
- Tweet: “you are home,” “welcome home,” or even “in this world, it’s just us, you know it’s not the same as it was”
Day 4: Various fungi
- Said to be a puzzle by Hester and Cook or Cavallini
- Theory by @paleblondegal on Twitter:
“The Smoking Hookah Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland sits on a MUSHROOM and says “who are you?” to Alice. She replied with “I don’t even know myself.” Her world is turned upside down. She’s in Wonderland. In nature, to get to Wonderland you need a key that unlocks a DOOR.”
Let’s unpack quickly: his album cover is upside down, the Twitter account posted “what are you doing here,” and in his song Lights Up, one of his lyrics is “do you know who you are?”
Day 5: Partial album cover release
Day 6: Grapes
- Tweet: “pearls of pleasure”
Day 7: Lamp
- Tweet: “summon the sun”
Day 8: Blue and white background with some sort of red fabric
- I haven’t heard any solid guesses on what this means, but here are a few ideas:
- Alluding to one of his Grammy outfits
- Relating to a red outfit he wore in the music video he was caught making
- Possible duvet cover
- Tweet: “shed the past, wear the present”
Day 9: Linework drawing in black and white
- Someone hypothesized that the image almost looks like a person sticking their tongue out and licking their fingers, alluding to an unreleased HS song called “Medicine” made for his first album
- Tweet: “find a moment of calm, colour it in”
- (Turns out it was a pattern in the music video for As It Was)
Day 10: Colorful artwork
- Alludes to “A Problem of Design” a poem by Robert Lax
- Tweet: “I think you should draw big flowers”
- (I think it was also in As It Was)
Day 11: The spinning platform that he was on in the As It Was teaser video.
The Instagram account @youarehome.hs thought that the first four posts may be spelling out “home” backward.
- First post: book by Emmerson
- Second post: book by Murakami
- Third post: earth, so maybe our home, or just the fact that it’s an O shape
- Fourth post: The fungus, puzzle possibly by Hester and Cook
I want to go back a little bit now to discuss some hints that we missed prior to the creation of the accounts.
For Halloween, Harry had super fun costumes, one being what some thought was a clown. Turns out it is not a clown, but a jester. Why you may be asking was he a jester specifically? Well, when did his single come out? April 1, which is ____? April Fools Day. April Fool’s Day came about because jesters convinced Constantine to make one of them a king for a day! His first costume was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. She is also lost, her world turned upside down. She clicked her heels to do what? Go home.
Now during his concerts around Halloween, he has said these quotes:
- “Are you ready to go home?”
- “Are you ready to take it home?” (wearing jester costume)
- “Send me home!”
- “There’s no place like home!” (wearing the Dorothy costume)
This piece of information could be a coincidence, but I wouldn’t put anything past Harry.
- A picture of his hands for Pleasing (his nail polish company) emerged, and in the photo, he was making a 5 with his left hand and a 2 with his right hand, followed by nothing, which could indicate a 0… you know where I’m heading with this: 5.2.0- May 20th– the date he’s releasing his album
His 2022 pit sections are labeled as the following:
- Bedroom
- Hallway
- Kitchen
The evidence above also relates to a few things from past songs
- Meet Me in the Hallway (song)
- Kiss in the kitchen like it’s a dancefloor (lyrics from Sunflower, Vol. 6)
- And then he was seen being pulled on a bed in the street which could refer to the bedroom
Lastly, here is some evidence of echoing:
- HS1: Sweet Creature- “You bring me home”
- Fine Line: Canyon Moon- “I’m going home”
- Harry’s Home: Unknown- “You are home”
As It Was Review:
This song. Wow. It was genuinely so good, and it made me so happy. When it came out at 7 pm, I listened to the song five times in a row. Also, the music video was just *chefs kiss*. I literally cannot wait to hear the album.
I am once again going to reiterate that I went in, maybe too deep for this, but that made me even more excited for his single to be released and so over the moon about his ALBUM. I hope you are as excited as I am, and I wish you all the best of luck getting good tickets for his next tour!