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Every Harry Styles Song Ranked

He’s built one of the wildest, weirdest songbooks of modern times — from Seventies raunch to epic folk beauty to glam grandeur

Rich Fury/Getty Images for Spotify; Anthony Pham via Getty Images; FRED DUFOUR/AFP via Getty Images

Harry Styles dropped his debut solo single “Sign of the Times” five years ago, in April 2017. Since then, he’s built one of the wildest, weirdest songbooks of modern times — a brilliant body of work from a genius singer, songwriter, and performer. And it’s just about to get bigger, since he’s also an evil angel of chaos who never gets tired of wreaking havoc on our lives.

Now’s the perfect time to celebrate that songbook, while the world awaits his third solo album, Harry’s House, which drops on May 20. (And while the world is recovering from his sequin-gasmic Coachella set.) So let’s break it down: all 30 Harry Styles tunes, ranked and reviewed. No clunkers here, just gems, so it’s a tribute to every single song. 

Let’s face it, there are lots of Harrys. He’s a pop star. An actor. A scholar of music history. A fashion icon. A dangerous madman who finds his pleasure in getting under our skin and trashing our expectations and dancing on our madness. And honestly, bless him for that. He’s all these things, but as these songs prove, the realest, truest Harry is the one who puts his heart and soul into this music. 

The list includes everything from both of his solo albums, plus his brand-new Number One hit, “As It Was.” Also the two new songs from Harry’s House that he just introduced at Coachella. We’re counting the songs he did regularly on his tours, even if they’re not officially released. Sure, this is totally cheating, but otherwise we’d have to leave “Medicine” off the list, which would be a tragedy. 

Obviously, there are no One Direction tunes; that would be a totally different list. (As the old song says, we don’t want a shadow holding us hostage, right?) This list leaves out his great one-off cover versions, like “Landslide” or “Juice” or “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” (Believe me, I was tempted to cheat on this rule to include his Coachella duets with Shania Twain.)

Every fan would compile a different list — that’s the fun of it, especially with a canon this loaded with goodies. (The words are the point here, not the numbers.) So let’s make some noise for all 30 of these songs and the man who brought them into the world. And here’s to the music he’s got in store for the future. Step into the light.

From Rolling Stone US

6

“Boyfriends”

One of the absolute highlights of Harry’s House, his best album, and he just introduced it at Coachella, which means it’s fair game, though there’s no way to begin processing the beauty of “Boyfriends” without hearing the real thing. (It would rank even higher if we were going by the finished version.) As he said when dedicating it live, “To boyfriends everywhere: fuck you!” The song dissects a man so pitifully out of touch with women (like the dude from “She”?), he can only relate by turning them into a “daydream.” It’s full of empathy for the girlfriend who’s misunderstood and taken for granted, who doesn’t want to live in that daydream anymore. The vibrant folk guitar evokes the Paul Simon of “I Am A Rock” or “Armistice Day.” Since Harry grew up in a pub hearing Simon and Garfunkel constantly, he knows this turf well. But S&G never had a song like this. “Boyfriends — are they just pretending?” is a tragically timeless question.Best line: “You love a fool who knows just who to get under your skin/You still open the door.”

5

“Falling”

Harry, you’re no good alone. “Falling” is the gorgeously bereft piano ballad from Fine Line, chronicling the afterlife of a broken relationship, asking, “What am I now? What if I’m someone I don’t want around?” He returns to places haunted by memories — “the coffee’s out at the Beechwood Cafe” — but it’s not the same. If this song doesn’t make a mess out of you, are you even there?Best line: “I’m well aware I write too many songs about you.”

4

“Kiwi”

Harry’s got a taste for soul-searching, reflective tunes. This is not one of them. “Kiwi” is a glam-punk body-slam guitar blast from his debut, inspired by a chic actress who’s “hard liquor mixed with a bit of intellect.” It’s driven by sex, adrenaline, pounding guitars, and the ridiculous chorus “I’m having your baby/It’s none of your business!” When Harry busts “Kiwi” out at the end of a live show, it always brings down the walls of Jericho. Let’s just say the Merriam-Webster Dictionary has used this moment as the definition of “euphoria.” Best line: “New York, baby, always jacked up/Holland Tunnel for a nose, it’s always backed up.”

3

“Cherry”

The most powerful moment on Fine Line, a raw confession of grief and jealousy after a broken romance. Harry tells the story with dry wit, aiming his barbs at himself, even when the pain is real. (“I can tell that you are at your best/I’m selfish so I’m hating it” is really twisting the knife.) In the studio, engineer Sammy Witte was playing an acoustic guitar riff that Harry overheard and loved — so close to John Lennon on the White Album — resulting in this song. “Cherry” ends with a voice note of his ex-girlfriend, Camille Rowe, speaking French on the phone. A heart-wrenching song that nonetheless soars to the sun.Best line: “I still miss your accent and your friends/Did you know I still talk to them?”

2

“As It Was”

The first taste of his upcoming album, Harry’s House, and an instant Number One hit. “As It Was” is a seductive dance-floor synth-pop bop — yet it’s also the most nakedly vulnerable tune he’s ever done. It opens with the voice of his goddaughter, angry about a missed call. (“Come on Harry, we wanna say good night to you!”) But even when he feels down and out, the breathy intimacy in his voice makes it feel like this is a shared story between two people. The ecstatic chimes ringing at the end are Harry, playing “tubular bells.” Total genius, done and dusted in three minutes. What a way to kick off the Harry’s House era, almost exactly five years after his debut single. And this is just the beginning.Best line: “Answer the phone/Harry, you’re no good alone/Why are you sitting at home on the floor?/What kind of pills are you on?”

1

“Sign of the Times”

The last thing the world was expecting from Harry Styles. His first solo single after One Direction wasn’t a pop banger, it was a nearly six-minute love-and-death piano epic. Talk about an audacious career move: He was aiming for the high ground of Bowie, or Prince, or Queen. As Harry told Rolling Stone in 2017, it’s sung from the perspective of a mother dying in childbirth. “The mother is told, ‘The child is fine, but you’re not going to make it.’ The mother has five minutes to tell the child, ‘Go forth and conquer.’” That’s why “Sign of the Times” feels uplifting, finding beauty in bleakness. The song made an instant impact — it hit Number Four in the U.S. — but it just gets more powerful as you live with it over the years. (It’s a totally different song if it happens to carry you through a grief experience.) “Sign of the Times” seems to pack a lifetime’s worth of hope into a few minutes. After this, nobody doubted Harry Styles again. Best line: “Just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times/Welcome to the final show/Hope you’re wearing your best clothes/You can’t bribe the door on your way to the sky.”