Harry Styles announces third studio album after immense buildup
Following an elaborate, multi-faceted buildup, Harry Styles officially announced the release of his third studio album, “Harry’s Home,” set to debut on May 20.
On March 18, the You Are Home project––a mysterious account attached to a website that contained nothing more than a solid beige door––teased the announcement and erupted on Twitter. Since then, the door has reopened daily to reveal new images behind it.
Four days prior to the announcement, the official Twitter account wrote, “the door is open, come on in,” sending fans into an anticipated flurry.
It was not until three days later that Styles himself followed the account on Twitter, yet somehow online fanbases almost immediately associated the site with Harry.
On the first day, the door revealed an array of green vines, which fans tied to the cover art of the book “Nature and Selected Essays” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Day two was a mere ombre of blended colors, which was associated with the cover of the novel ‘Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” by Haruki Murakami.
Day three was a section of the Earth.
Day four was an array of painted mushrooms, which displayed a section of a 1000-piece puzzle by Cavallini and Co., which Harry Lambert, Style’s stylist, posed in front of a poster of. This evidently ties into the new mushroom theme of Harry’s beauty brand, Pleasing.
On Wednesday, the door opened to reveal what is presumably the cover art for the album, with the same ominous door which consumed the website. The mass social media announcement for the release date by Styles himself, HSHQ and the You Are Home project used the same image.
The notations of the images worked to begin spelling out the word “welcome” backwards, starting with “E” for “Emerson,” then subsequently followed by “M” for Murakami, the Earth forming the letter “O” and the “C” for the company that produced the puzzle. On day three, the fragment of the Earth was placed upside-down. Why does this matter? The cover image of the new album displays Styles standing in a room in which everything is inverted, all of the furniture hanging upside-down from the ceiling.
Styles’ response to the announcement was a simple “Welcome home.”
The tweets from the account, which was just verified the day before Styles’ official announcement, are suspected to be lyrics from the upcoming album.
The album was initially speculated to be another “soft rock” album from Styles, yet following this week’s activity, fans are suspecting the theory of a 70s psychedelic ambiance.
The door opened on the day of the announcement with a link to the same trailer featured on the HSHQ Instagram: a 40-second teaser to the ambiance of the album, with the main scene placing Styles on an empty stage with the outline of a house rising around him.
The depth of the album reveal expands outwards even further, as months prior, Styles renamed the GA pits “Hallway,” “Bedroom,” and “Kitchen,” for the upcoming legs of his world tour, alluding to the rooms in a house and songs in his prior albums. Fans have speculated about this change from the prior “Cherry” and “Watermelon” hits, titled after songs from the “Fine Line” album he is currently touring, indicating the transition into a new music era for the artist.
Notably, Styles also dressed as Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” during his Harryween special at MSG––Dorothy clicks her heels three times to “go home;” this is Harry’s third album.
“Harry’s Home” is available for pre-save on major streaming services.
Mia Adduci is a senior studying communication concentrating in multi-platform journalism and media who began writing for the paper her first semester on...