Somehow, Harry Styles (formerly of the saccarine pop act One Direction) has released a great debut solo album. Somehow, he’s manged to channel diverse influences in to something resembling an excellent rock album. You can hear bits of classic 70s funk, you can hear The Stones, Pink Floyd, and The Beatles.

You can, unfortunately, also hear the studio. Or, rather, you can hear the excesses in production value that are afforded by being formerly of One Direction. The songs on this record are pretty great. The instrumentation is interesting. The delivery is excellent. The production is as overblown as you would expect on a blockbuster pop album.

If you can get past the slick production, though, there is a solid rock album hiding underneath it. It’s surprising, it’s refreshing, it’s interesting. Go give it a shot.

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