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Kalaroga Shark Media, I'm Garrett Fischer and on January twenty third,
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twenty twenty six, at midnight Greenwich. Meantime, Harry Styles released Aperture,
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his first new music in nearly four years. Within hours,
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it debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot one hundred,
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number one in the UK, number one globally, his third
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chart topper, following As It Was and Watermelon Sugar. But
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the numbers don't tell the real story. The real story
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is about what happens when one of the biggest pop
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stars in the world disappears for three years, moves to Berlin,
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and comes back with a five minute house track that
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sounds nothing like anything he's done before. The real story
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is about risk, reinvention and what it means to let
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the light in. Let's start with the silence. After Harry's
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House dropped in May twenty twenty two, Harry Styles spent
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twenty two months on Love on Tour, one hundred and
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seventy three shows across the globe. The tour ended July
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twenty second, twenty twenty three, in Reggio, Amelia, Italy, in
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front of one hundred thousand people at RC Farina and
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then nothing, well not nothing. Harry ran marathons in Tokyo
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and Berlin. He appeared at a Pope Leo the fourteenth
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Conclave election crowd at the Vatican, which was surreal. He
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made sporadic public appearances, but musically silence. In August twenty
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twenty two, mid tour, he'd mentioned working on ideas for
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a fourth album. By twenty twenty four, he was spotted
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visiting RAC Records in London. But no announcements, no singles,
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no carefully orchestrated rollout for an artist at Harry's level,
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someone who could release a voice memo and debut at
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number one. This kind of silence is unusual, calculated, intentional.
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Then in May five reports surface Harry Styles was living
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in Berlin working on his fourth album, a synthesizer heavy project.
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Immediately the comparison started David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy. Bowie had
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moved to West Berlin in nineteen seventy six to escape
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LA's drug scene and reinvent himself. The result Low Heroes Lodger,
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three of the most influential albums in rock history. Harry
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wasn't running from anything, but he was chasing something, A sound,
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a feeling space to create without the weight of expectation.
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Berlin offers that it's a city that knows about reinvention,
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about transformation, about what happens when you tear down walls
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and build something new in the rubble. Harry worked with
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Kid Harpoon, his longtime collaborator and the executive producer behind
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Harry's House Fine Line and his twenty seventeen self titled debut,
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but this time they were building something different. In December
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twenty twenty five, the first clue dropped. An eight minute
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video titled Forever Forever appeared on Harry's YouTube channel, footage
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from that final Love on Tour show in Italy, Emotional
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Reflective a closing of one chapter. The video ended with
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a phrase, we belonged together. Then the breadcrumbs began. Billboards
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appeared in major cities New York, London, Rome, Soundpollo, just
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that phrase, we belonged together, no explanation, no branding, just
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the words. A website we belonged Together. Dot Co went
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live with cryptic imagery. Fans who signed up for Harry's
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HSHQ WhatsApp channel would receive a camera emoji if they
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typed certain phrases one phrase that triggered the emoji let
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the light in. Later this would turn out to be
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a lyric from Apple. On January fifteenth, twenty twenty six,
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Harry announced his fourth album, Kiss All the Time Disco Occasionally,
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release date March sixth, twenty twenty six. Twelve tracks, executive
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produced by Kid Harpoon. That title alone told you everything.
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The punctuation matters. Kiss all the Time, constant, intimate human connection,
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disco occasionally, Moments of release, of joy, of losing yourself
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on a dance floor. It's a thesis statement about balance,
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about being a romantic and a hedonist, about intimacy and
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euphoria existing in the same space. Five days later, January twentieth,
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Harry announced the lead single would drop January twenty third
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at midnight GMT. The announcement came with a photo Harry
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in a recording studio, arms raised in celebration, grinning caption
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Aperture January twenty fe third, zero zero zero zero UK.
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The title is perfect. In photography, aperture is the opening
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and a lens that lets light through. The wider the aperture,
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the more light enters. It controls depth, focus, what you
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see clearly and what blurs into Boca as a metaphor
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opening yourself up, letting people in, allowing light to flood
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the dark spaces. On January twenty second, the day before release,
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Harry hosted eleven listening sessions in record stores around the world,
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intimate gatherings. Fans in New York at Rough Trade heard
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it first. Reports filtered out. People were crying. The comparison started.
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Lord's Ribs, Billie Eilish's Chihiro, Harry's own music for a
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sushi restaurant, LCD sound System, Robin House music. One thing
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became clear, this wasn't as it was Part two more
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in a moment. Then at midnight Greenwich meantime on January
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twenty third, aperture arrived. The first forty five seconds are
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pure synth, no vocals, just building, pulsing electronic energy. If
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you weren't expecting house music, this would be jarring. Where's
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the guitar, Where's Harry's voice? But that's the point. You
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have to sit in the anticipation, you have to trust
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the build. When Harry's vocals finally enter, they're intimate, whispered,
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almost close micd like he's singing directly into your ear.
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In a crowded club. The song is over five minutes
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long in an era of TikTok optimized two minute tracks.
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That's a statement. This isn't background music. This requires your attention.
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NME called it slow building electronic with euphoric house piano elements.
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The Independent noted its delayed gratification struck you have to
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earn the payoff the chorus we belong together, It finally appears.
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It's only love is repetitive mantra, like on a dance
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floor at two am. This is exactly what you need,
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not complexity, just the truth, repeated until it becomes a prayer.
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The production is immaculate. Kid Harpoon built something that honors
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house music's history while sounding completely contemporary. There are nods
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to classic Chicago house, to UK garage, to the euphoric
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builds of Swedish disco pop. Ellie Roussel from wolf Allice,
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who toured with Harry in twenty twenty two, contributes background vocals.
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Her ethereal voice adds texture, atmosphere, another layer of light.
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The music video, directed by aub Perry, is brilliantly weird.
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Harry wanders through an empty Los Angeles hotel, a tall
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stranger in sunglasses follows him carrying a white plastic shopping bag.
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Eventually they chase each other through hall. They tumble down
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a circular staircase together, then they do the dirty dancing lift.
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Fans were baffled and delighted. Never thought I would see
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Ozzy Osbourne chasing Harry and then doing the dirty dancing
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move with him. One commented the stranger does bear an
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uncanny resemblance to Ozzy. The video has been compared to
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Spike John's Weapon of Choice with Christopher walkin that same surreal, dance,
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focused energy. It's playful, it doesn't take itself too seriously.
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It says this is about joy, about movement, about the
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absurdity and beauty of human connection. Aperture debuted at number
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one on the Billboard Hot one hundred, Harry's third number
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one as a solo artist, eighth solo top ten. With
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one direction, he'd scored six top tens. This is his
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fourteenth total. But here's what makes it historic. Aperture became
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the first song to simultaneously top both the Hot one
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hundred and the Hot Dance Slash Pop Songs chart, which
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launched in January twenty twenty five. It's also the first
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hit to top either of Billboard's main dance charts in
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over two years in the UK, number one on the
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Singles chart, his third UK chart topper. Globally, number one
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in Ireland, top ten in Australia, Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden,
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and it's only been on the charts for a week.
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The success is remarkable because Aperture is genuinely risky. It's
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not an obvious pop song, it doesn't have a huge,
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belted chorus. It's five minutes of slow, building house music
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from an artist whose last album was gentle, introspective indie pop.
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But risk is exactly what Harry's career has been built
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on his twenty seventeen debut, Harry Styles could have been
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safe ex boy band member makes radio friendly pop. Instead,
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he made a rock album influenced by David Bowie, the
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Beatles and Pink Floyd. Sign of the Times was over
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five minutes long. It worked fine. Line in twenty nineteen
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was even weirder, psychedelic, experimental, emotionally vulnerable. Watermelon Sugar became
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a smash, but the album also included things like she
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a spacey Jeff Buckley influenced track that Sounds like nothing
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Else on pop radio. Harry's House in twenty twenty two
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leaned into Joni Mitchell inspired introspection and why to k
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Era pop production as it was, spent fifteen weeks at
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number one, the album one Album of the Year at
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the Grammys. Each album was different, each took chances, each
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worked now. Aperture and Kiss all the Time. Disco occasionally
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represent the next evolution house music, disco, Berlin club culture,
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the tradition of losing yourself on a dance floor as
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a form of transcendence. This is Harry at his most
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openly queer. Coded. House and disco are in ahherently queer
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genres born in black and Latino gay clubs in Chicago
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and New York in the seventies and eighties. Choosing to
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make this music as a bisexual icon with a massive
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platform is culturally significant. It's all so deeply personal. Harry
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has talked about clubs as spaces of freedom of self discovery.
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Aperture captures that the moment when you stop performing, stop worrying,
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and just are the light. Floods in the tour announcement
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came almost immediately after the single drop. Seven cities fifty
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shows total Amsterdam, London, San Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, Sydney.
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The New York leg thirty shows at Madison Square Garden
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August into October. His only US performances in twenty twenty
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six thirty nights at MSG is absurd. It's a residency
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at the level of Billy Joel or Elton John. Harry's
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betting that kiss all the Time Disco occasionally will connect
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so deeply that fans will travel to New York from
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across the country, from around the world to see him.
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Support acts include Robin the Swedish disco pop queen who
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pioneered emotional dance floor music, Shania Twain, Jamie dex X,
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Jorja Smith Fouche an eclectic mix that signals the album's
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range more in a moment. So what does aperture mean
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for Harry Style's career. It proves he's not posting. He
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doesn't need to be daring. He could release as it
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was two point zero and print money, but that's not
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interesting to him. Growth is. It proves he trusts his audience.
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Five minute house tracks don't scream mass appeal. But Harry's
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fans have shown up for every risk he's taken. He's
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earned their trust by never pandering. It proves he's thinking
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about legacy. Bowie didn't become Bhoie by playing it safe.
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He became Bowie by constantly destroying and rebuilding his sound.
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Harry studied that playbook, and it proves that in twenty
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twenty six, you can still build anticipation through silence in
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a world of constant content of artists desperate to stay
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relevant through perpetual posting. Harry disappeared for three years, no singles,
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no features, no desperate grabbing for attention, and when he
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came back number one worldwide, Aperture is just the beginning
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eleven more tracks weigh on Kiss all the Time Disco Occasionally,
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titles like Ready, Steady Go and Dance No More and
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Carla's Song suggest variety, narrative, emotional range. If Aperture is
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Harry opening the lens, letting light flood in, what comes next?
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Where does that illumination take us? We'll find out March sixth.
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For now, we have this, a five minute house track
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that debuted at number one because one of the world's
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biggest pop stars, moved to Berlin, made something genuinely risky
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and trusted that if you build it right, they will come.
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Aperture opening, letting light in, belonging together. After three years
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of silence, Harry Styles is back and he brought the
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dance floor with him. That's aperture by Harry Styles. Sometimes
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the biggest risk is trusting that your audience will follow
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you anywhere, even onto a dance floor at midnight, waiting
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for the beat to drop. I'm Garrett Fischer. Let the
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Light in.