The 1D star is returning with new 70s-inspired material – plus stories about magic mushrooms, Malibu and models Modern Toss on aging in a boybandBefore Harry Styles released his first solo album in 2017, nobody had any idea what to expect. One moment he was on The X Factor singing Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn to Sinitta in canvas M&S slippers and a mum scarf, and the next he was covered in tatts, appearing in high-fashion spreads looking like he had probably caught at least one STI (one of the cooler ones, like chlamydia). Would he sound like a former boyband member, or the mini Mick Jagger he had styled himself as? The resulting self-titled debut was both: rock-influenced, comfortably cool, appealing to his teen fanbase and newer adult fans alike.
With album two on the horizon, could Styles’s next artistic persona be coming into view? A couple of years have passed since his debut and he has now fully solidified himself as someone who wears Gucci flares, hangs with Stevie Nicks and writes bisexual anthems. Still, that didn’t prepare anyone for the onslaught that was his recent Rolling Stone profile in which we learned that album two was born among a swirl of magic mushrooms, Malibu beach parties, Paul McCartney’s Ram, T-Rex’s Cosmic Dancer, Haruki Murakami novels, transcendental meditation, a break-up with
Instagram model Camille Rowe and an old
American game called Cornhole, where you fling some sacks into distant holes. Or, in his words: “It’s all about having sex and feeling sad.”