“Lights Out” Lights the Way For a New Harry Styles Era

I like many other people on this planet had the intention of going to bed early on Thursday night, only to be thwarted by a Beyonce level release by Harry Styles. Thursday morning was met with a stream of mysterious billboards popping up around the world with the phrase “Do You Know Who You Are?” and bared the acronym TPWK. 

Casual fans (aka people who have not been living and breathing One Direction since 2010) may not recognize the acronym. Treat People With Kindness (TPWK) has been on Styles’ merch since the release of his self titled album in 2017. Lights Up is the first single off of Harry’s next album (the name is still unknown so we’ll call it HS2 from here on out). 

It’s very obvious that the music that Styles is releasing now is the music he’s always wanted to make. There’s no sugarcoating that this song has a lot of promiscuous and the music video highly reflects that. 

Lights Up is so starkly different from anything we’ve seen so far from HS1, Sign of the Times was just Harry being dangled from a helicopter.

Was I prepared to watch a shirtless Harry for 2 minutes and 52 seconds at 12:01 AM? No, I was not. Did I enjoy that entire 2 minutes and 52 seconds? Yes, yes I did.

Seeing this video for the first time and not knowing what to expect and then you get bombarded with so much happening it’s hard to still process. I’ve watched the video about 10 times already and I really have nothing tangible to form into words.

Lights Up provides the perfect blend of bedroom pop and a mix of R&B to accompany the visuals of the music video. Let’s give a round of applause to the creative director and cinematographer because those visuals made me feel something.

Just an FYI in case you were wondering, Styles was in clothes for a couple of parts in outfits that I’m pretty sure cost more than my entire education here at Kent State.  

The progression of Harry Styles has been a privilege to watch, seeing the growth of his music and identity in a post One Direction era. In watching the way he captures the world’s attention now, I can’t help but be proud. It finally feels like we’re getting the music we were meant to have from Styles. If Lights Up is any indication of how HS2 is going to proceed, I don’t know if I’m ready for this.

But like in a good way.

So Harry (or anyone on Harry’s team) if you’re reading this, please throw me a bone and tell me when the album is going to come out? I swear I won’t tell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZvM1918_E

Song: 4 out of 5

Video: 3 Out of 5