FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Saluting the Brilliant Harry Styles

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

 

Saluting the Brilliant Harry Styles

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AN artist who always…

releases really interesting work, earlier this week, it was confirmed Harry Styles is releasing a new album. Although the title suggests something romantic or Disco-themed/tinged, I was curious whether he was going to bring other artists in. A lot of major Pop artists collaborate with their peers. Usually their younger peers. I would have loved Styles to work with Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell and some true legends. However, I feel like his first album since 2022 might feature him pretty much solo. However, there might be a few guests in the mix. To celebrate the announcement of a new album from the incredible Harry Styles, I am ending with a career-spanning mix of his wonderful solo work. The regarded and known songs alongside some phenomenal deep cuts. However, before getting there, The Guardian published an article reacting to news of an album so many people are excited about. So much buzz and speculation on social media:

Harry Styles announces fourth solo album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally

After a series of cryptic billboards teasing fans, the As It Was singer reveals the title and release date of his first record since 2022

After a brief teaser campaign in which billboards around the world promised “we belong together” and “see you very soon”, Harry Styles has announced his fourth solo album.

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally will be released on 6 March. It was produced by Kid Harpoon, the British songwriter and producer who has worked on all of Styles’ previous albums. The artwork shows the 31-year-old pop star wearing sunglasses and ducking beneath a disco ball seemingly suspended from the night sky.

The 12-song track list has not been shared – nor any music – but Styles’ web store offered packages including vinyl, cassettes, T-shirts, what appears to be an analogue camera and a bum bag. The site seemed to immediately crash on the announcement.

The long-awaited album news followed Styles sending a voice note of him singing “we belong together” to fans who had signed up to a WhatsApp promo line earlier in the day.

It has been reported that Styles will give a second residency at Madison Square Garden in New York after playing 15 sold-out shows at the venue in 2022. It is also rumoured that Styles will hold a residency at the Co-op Live in Manchester, in which he is an investor. He has been tipped by bookies as a potential headliner of Glastonbury 2027 after the festival takes a fallow year this summer.

Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally comes four years after Harry’s House, which reached No 1 around the world and was certified triple platinum in the UK with more than 900,000 certified sales. It won the coveted album of the year at the 2023 Grammy awards in addition to two other categories. It was also named album of the year at the 2023 Brit awards and spawned the hit single As It Was, his most-streamed song on Spotify with 4.2bn streams.

The last new music Styles released was Forever, Forever, an eight-and-a-half minute instrumental song played on piano that he previously performed on the final date of his 2023 tour. Each of Styles’ previous albums was co-produced by Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson.

The album will be Styles’ first since the death of his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne in October 2024 at the age of 31. Payne fell from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aries. In a statement released at the time, Styles said that Payne’s “greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it”. One Direction were active from 2010 to 2016 after being formed on The X Factor.

Outside music, Styles has made headlines as a marathon runner. He finished the 2025 Tokyo marathon in three hours and 24 minutes in March, but blitzed his own time at the Berlin marathon in September, achieving a coveted sub-three-hour finish in two hours and 59 minutes. His lifestyle brand Pleasing also made the news last year when it launched a sex toy and lube, complementing the line’s apparel, accessories and beauty products.

In May, he was, mysteriously, spotted in Rome awaiting the announcement of the new pope, Leo XIV, wearing a cap emblazoned with “techno is my boyfriend”. If his new record contains religious themes, he will be in good company, after Rosalía’s Lux: released in November, the Catalan star’s fourth album referenced numerous saints from across history”.

I am sure that we will get a first taste of the new album. I really loved 2022’s Harry's House. From its stunning cover through to the brilliance of the music, there is going to be a lot of speculation as to what will be included on the fourth album. It is a year when Pop music will once again rule. You feel Harry Styles will release one of the year-best albums. Because of this, below is a mixtape of the biggest Harry Styles tracks…

AND some terrific deep cuts.