Harry Styles finishes the year with new album Fine Line

Jill Grinnell, Staff Writer

By Jill Grinnell

Harry Styles emerged back into the pop culture scene with a reinvented sound and expression on his second album Fine Line, which was released Dec. 13.

Fine Line is a generally melancholic record that contrasts his self-titled first album Harry Styles. The new album conveys themes of heartbreaking, longing, and hardship with songs like “Cherry” and “To Be So Lonely,” which reveal aspects of Styles’ previous relationships on a deep personal level that was not reached on the first album. 

On my first listen of the album, I sat down and went through each track beginning to end, and I was overwhelmed with various emotions, but the song that resonated with me the most was the final song, which is called “Fine Line.” 

“Fine Line” is a six-minute song that starts off on a depressing note, but ends triumphantly. One of the first lyrics are, “Put a price on emotion / I’m looking for something to buy / You’ve got my devotion / But man, I can hate you sometimes.” As the song progresses, the listener is filled with a sense that everything is going to be okay, even though life is hard. I could listen to Harry sing “We’ll be a fine line / We’ll be alright” on repeat and never need anything else to make me happy. 

“She” and “Falling” are also strong ballads of lost love. “She” is more about the absence of romance, while “Falling” conveys a lack of self-love. Both of these songs make up for the weaker tracks on the album like “Golden” and “Canyon Moon.”

While I liked these songs, they didn’t have the ability to move me or really make me feel any sort of emotion. They seem more like filler songs in comparison to the rest of the album.

Fine Line further establishes Styles as an individual artist and pushes him away from just being another ex-boy band singer. He expresses an artistic freedom that shows his talent in the best way possible.