Midway through the opening night of his world tour, Harry Styles asks where the audience in the Johan Cruijff Arena have come from. To judge by their response, residents of Amsterdam are vastly outnumbered by those who have travelled vast distances to be here: further investigation on the part of the singer reveals audience members from Switzerland and Ireland.
It is evidence of what, to use a modern term, a huge flex the Together, Together tour is. There are doubtless sound reasons for performing lengthy residencies at single venues rather than dutifully dragging yourself around the globe – Styles’ 10 shows in Amsterdam are the only gigs he is playing in mainland Europe, followed by similarly lengthy sojourns at venues in London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York City, Melbourne and Sydney – but it also helps underline the enormity of the former One Direction star’s solo success. Twelve consecutive nights at Wembley is a feat not even Taylor Swift’s Eras tour could match. Here, it suggests, is a man who has not only pulled off one of the hardest tricks in pop – the journey from manufactured boyband member to respected solo artist is a notoriously thorny one – but done it with an almost unparalleled degree of aplomb. You would have to look back to George Michael’s post-Wham! career to find even a vague equivalent.
New Album Reception
But Styles’ dominance has looked a little shakier in the wake of the release of his fourth album, the abysmally titled Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. That it received very muted reviews indeed from critics unimpressed by its understated music and lyrics so opaque they sounded suspiciously meaningless is beside the point – if the general public cared what critics think, Ed Sheeran would still be a busker – but the similarly muted commercial response is another matter. In the UK, singles Aperture and American Girls spent a week each at the top of the charts: by contrast, the big hit from its predecessor Harry’s House, As It Was, was No 1 for 10 weeks.
That said, you could not tell by the reception Styles gets in Amsterdam, from a crowd so partisan that the sight of him sipping some water between songs gets a reaction that would seem a bit much if he had done something miraculous with loaves and fishes: they greet songs from Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally with a fervour indistinguishable from their response to his biggest hits.
Live Performance Dynamics
In a live setting at least, you see their point. Tracks from said album that sounded flat on record feel noticeably punchier on stage. Sometimes they have been obviously zhooshed-up – Taste Back now comes interpolated with a whopping sample from Underworld’s Born Slippy – and sometimes they just feel potentiated by their live incarnation. Ready Steady Go seems more vital and alive performed by Styles in the middle of the audience – three linked catwalks bedecked with LED lights lead out from the stage into the crowd – surrounded by dancers flinging themselves around in a manner that seems abandoned, even if it is presumably choreographed to within an inch of its life.
It hints at the strange tension at the centre of Harry Styles’ solo career, a curious blend of straightforward pop moves – the irresistible blasting brass of Music For Sushi Restaurants, the hook-heavy Watermelon Sugar and As It Was – and lunges towards something more leftfield. At one juncture, the audience is treated to the unexpected sight of a man who first found fame by charming Simon Cowell on The X Factor bellowing into a distorted microphone in a manner not unlike that of late Fall frontman Mark E Smith. The live incarnation of 2019’s Treat People With Kindness owes a great deal to Talking Heads, specifically This Must Be The Place.
It does not always work – not even the crowd’s vociferous reaction can stop Season 2 Weight Loss sounding nondescript and meandering – but frequently does, bolstered by the fact that Styles, quite aside from his noted pulchritude, is a genuinely charismatic performer. In a world where pop stars are encouraged to take no risks whatsoever, there is something appealing about being in the presence of a pop star who is willing to push the envelope at least a little.
Harry Styles’ Together, Together tour runs until 13 December.
