{"id":965833,"date":"2026-05-17T03:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/965833\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T03:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:40:14","slug":"harry-styles-review-a-genuinely-charismatic-performer-who-has-pulled-off-one-of-the-hardest-tricks-in-pop-harry-styles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/965833\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Styles review \u2013 a genuinely charismatic performer who has pulled off one of the hardest tricks in pop | Harry Styles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Midway through the opening night of his world tour, Harry Styles<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s evidence of what \u2013 to use a modern term \u2013 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 \u2013 Styles\u2019 10 shows in Amsterdam are the only gigs he\u2019s playing in mainland Europe, followed by similarly lengthy sojourns at venues in London, S\u00e3o Paulo, Mexico City, New York City, Melbourne and Sydney \u2013 but it also helps underline the enormity of the former One Direction star\u2019s solo success. Twelve consecutive nights at Wembley is a feat not even Taylor Swift\u2019s Eras tour could match. Here, it suggests, is a man who\u2019s not only pulled off one of the hardest tricks in pop \u2013 the journey from manufactured boyband member to respected solo artist is a notoriously thorny one \u2013 but done it with an almost unparalleled degree of aplomb. You\u2019d have to look back to George Michael\u2019s post-Wham! career to find even a vague equivalent.<\/p>\n

But Styles\u2019 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<\/a>. 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 \u2013 if the general public cared what critics think, Ed Sheeran would still be a busker \u2013 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\u2019s House, As It Was, was No 1 for 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

That said, you couldn\u2019t 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\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve been obviously zhooshed-up \u2013 Taste Back now comes interpolated with a whopping sample from Underworld\u2019s Born Slippy \u2013 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 \u2013 three linked catwalks bedecked with LED lights lead out from the stage into the crowd \u2013 surrounded by dancers flinging themselves around in a manner that seems abandoned, even if it\u2019s presumably choreographed to within an inch of its life.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tracks that sounded flat on record feel noticeably punchier on stage.\u2019 Photograph: Anthony Pham\/Getty Images for HS<\/p>\n

It hints at the strange tension at the centre of Harry Styles\u2019 solo career, a curious blend of straightforward pop moves \u2013 the irresistible blasting brass of Music For Sushi Restaurants, the hook-heavy Watermelon Sugar and As It Was \u2013 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\u2019s Treat People With Kindness owes a great deal to Talking Heads, specifically This Must Be The Place.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t always work \u2013 not even the crowd\u2019s vociferous reaction can stop Season 2 Weight Loss sounding nondescript and meandering \u2013 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\u2019s something appealing about being in the presence of a pop star who\u2019s willing to push the envelope at least a little.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midway through the opening night of his world tour, Harry Styles asks where the audience in the Johan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-965833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116587844656834591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}