Harry Styles – Aperture

I’m making a note here, moderate success…

[Video]
[5.83]Alex Clifton: Someone on Reddit said “there are about to be 10 billion Heated Rivalry sad club scene edits to this song.” Styles himself has said “Aperture” was influenced by LCD Soundsystem. As someone fully obsessed with Heated Rivalry who also spent the past year (re-)falling in love with LCD Soundsystem, this is exactly my shit. I like seeing Styles take a bit of a risk and branch into something new; it helps that it also manages to hit my current hyperfixation buttons. Added a point because the video contributes greatly to my enjoyment and reminds me of “Weapon of Choice”; I love seeing Harry Styles leaning into being a weird little guy rather than a sexy rockstar.
[9]

Hannah Jocelyn: The appeal of LCD Soundsystem is that it’s one guy smugly showing off how much he knows about music, then occasionally stumbling on something heartfelt. This is Kid Harpoon showing how much he knows about LCD Soundsystem, and Harry Styles is there. The disconnect between the production and Styles actually reminds me of a more recent electronic phenomenon: call it Let’s Fred Again!
[5]

TA Inskeep: “Describe “Aperture” without mentioning LCD Soundsystem” challenge. But when it’s this sharp, who cares?
[7]

Claire Davidson: Remember when Harry Styles shocked the world by proving with “Sign of the Times” that a former boy band member could actually make substantive music? Yes, the song was more of a David Bowie homage than a truly distinct assertion of identity, but it had emotive stakes, spacious production, and a genuine sense of gravitas — all qualities that Styles has struggled to replicate in the years since. Really, it feels like Styles immediately began resting on his laurels once he obtained critical respectability with his debut, subsequently making music that often gestures toward its own importance while remaining decidedly placid in both content and scope. It’s been four years since Harry Styles released a new album, and yet it feels, depressingly, like he’s never truly left, if only because airless pablum like “As It Was” has lingered in the culture for so long that bringing up his presence almost feels like a moot point. It’s fitting, then, that “Aperture,” the lead single from Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally — a title that feels more like an act of feigned earnestness than a truly authentic mission statement — should sound simultaneously so labored and yet so underpowered. The song almost reads like a deconstructed house track, so sparse in its squelching synth whirs and steadfast kick drum that the promise of direct intimacy in the lyrics feels inevitable. Instead, though, Styles substitutes those epiphanies with the vaguest possible references to some sort of emotional low point preceding a romance, his lyrics so amorphous that they forestall the transcendence clearly intended by the refrain of “we belong together,” a revelation so supposedly bold that it’s delivered through choral-style multitracking. I wasn’t surprised to learn that “Aperture” is the opening track from this upcoming album: indeed, what it most resembles is an overture, an opaque tableau primarily intended to set the tone for a project rather than display its specific contours. What does it say about Harry Styles, then, that his label should choose such a broad facsimile of sincerity to reintroduce him to listeners?
[5]

Al Varela: I am thrilled to hear that the lead single to a new Harry Styles album is a complete left turn from the previous album. As much as I enjoyed Harry’s House and especially “As It Was”, I really wanted something unexpected from Harry. Shock the world like he did with his debut album. “Aperture” is a good start! A five minute dance song that jitters and thumps rather than really swell for any sort of big pop climax is more reminiscent of a lot of house and rave music as opposed to the usual EDM and disco that the pop charts are used to. Still, even without that scale, you still feel the euphoria and joy coursing through this song’s veins. The relentlessness of the groove, the way Harry and the crowd sing “We belong togetherrr” as the production spins around them; Kid Harpoon did a stellar job capturing the feeling of a dance floor that’s as busy as it feels empty. I don’t think this is among Harry’s absolute best, but I’m excited to see what else he can do on this new album.
[8]

Alfred Soto: I’m coy about Harry Styles singles until I hear them on the radio, though some, like “Late Night Talking,” sound worse; but I’m convinced that mumbly-yearning Harry over house beats is my least favorite of his modes. Still, I’ll hedge.
[6]

Nortey Dowuona: A formless blob of Eurodance stretched over bland white sugar bread. This is what happens when Tyler Johnson is not touching the boards.
[5]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Surprisingly overcast and dull for an anthem purportedly about letting the light in.
[3]

Ian Mathers: I am still a but baffled by the music video (why was Jack White doing all that?), and truly this song did not need to be quite this long, but I am quite taken how, especially in the opening minutes, “Aperture” sounds uncannily like the sort of minimalist synthpop kind of in vogue in certain circles like a decade ago (like someone like Lusine with more expressive vocals). If the whole record is like this, I think I owe Harry a listen.
[7]

Jel Bugle: Aperture, Aperture, Aperture, a-ha-a. Not a big fan of sophsti-pop, but Harry can make mature songs if he wants. Sounds like Morr Music circa 2003, which I think I liked back in the day, but rarely find myself in the mood for now.
[4]

Scott Mildenhall: A warm pulse is always a good place to start, but the shifts from cryptic verse to candid chorus disrupt the journey. When Styles declares that “we belong together”, it doesn’t finally appear. He sounds louder, but no more impassioned. The wooziness is characteristic, but it comes with the feeling that you could have anyone mumbling over this to the same effect — or better.
[7]

Joshua Lu: Styles is an expert at knowing what sounds cool and a novice at making things sound cool. “Aperture” has the aesthetics of a cool song (droning synths, crescendoing vocals, hot house beats) with none of the panache to actually pull it off. This attempt to be interesting comes at the sacrifice of making the song enjoyable, and the result is neither.
[4]