Throughout his solo career, Harry Styles has typically opted for ’70s-inspired sounds with hints of David Bowie, Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac. When he announced his third album Harry’s House, which bore the same name as Joni Mitchell’s song, it was expected that his third album would also have an impact. But in a surprising twist, the first single “As It Was” sounded nothing like Styles’ previous work; Instead, it felt like stepping back in time…just over a decade ago.
“As It Was” opens with bright synths, capturing the joy of these sparkling, danceable songs from the blogrock era. Styles is a master songwriter, but he’s traditionally shied away from playing full-on pop, instead taking a groovier, stripped-down approach on his earlier albums. The synths give this single a boost of energy and show that the former boy bander can still write an excellent pop song – even if it’s a mile away from the kind of pop he made under One Direction.
It also makes for a fun round of guess the influence. After the song premiered, fans online began discussing which indie-pop bands the song sounded most like: names like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Vampire Weekend, Two Door Cinema Club, and Smith Westerns have all popped up ( according to the author). , it sounds like The Drums meets Mystery Jets, with hints of Los Campesinos! and Allo Darlin’).
A music writer, Patrick Lyons, went ahead and made a game of bingo about it. “Compete with your friends to see who’s following more music journalists by scrolling through your feeds and playing the Harry Styles new single x 2009-2011 Buzzbands bingo game,” he wrote on Twitter. Although the Lyon bingo map has a wide variety of names, each comparison made makes sense. For someone in their mid-20s who grew up in England, it’s not unreasonable to have been a fan of the Tumblr-Twee era. And come on, we’re also talking about someone who recently toured with Jenny Lewis, so Styles knows his twee-leaning indie pop.