“Aperture” by Harry Styles continues a sleepy dance pop trend

Harry Styles beckons us to the dance floor on “Aperture,” the first single from his forthcoming album I Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.

The song comes in gently, with soft synthpad chords. The drums and bass, which sound sweetly slapdash, will remind many listeners of Jamie XX, LCD Soundsystem, or even Sylvan Esso’s 2010s hipster hit, "Coffee."

On it, Styles’s voice comes in at a distance, muffled and ponderous in contrast to his usual classic pop sweetness. And the lyrics are surprisingly fragmented, like flashes of clarity during a late night of moving and drinking. “I'm told you're elevating / Drinks go straight to my knees,” he coos softly.

The song is steady, or rather, plodding. Though Styles’s voice gently swells alongside the synths, drums, and an ambient choir, the peaks never reach a true brain-tingling apex. The production gets lost in its own haziness, failing to ever materialize into something visceral or sticky, as does Harry who sounds surprisingly timid.

As Styles’s forthcoming album title suggests, “Aperture” seeks to combine the intimacy and warmth of a living room make out session, with the delirious joy of a club night. In KATTDO, "kissing" is “all the time,” the “disco” night is occasional, which may be the problem here. This feels like dance music made by those who only dabble on the dance floor. Such clubbing novices — like the nightlife newbies who loudly blabber on the dance floor, or have their phone brightness turned up all the way in the club — can often harsh the vibe. And you can spot them from a mile away.

KATTDO arrives at a moment when pop and dance are nearly synonymous. In the years since our collective re-emergence from COVID lockdown, we’ve had Beyonce’s 2022 house music odyssey Renaissance, Troye Sivan's ecstatic “rush” , the society-wide dance psychosis that was brat summer, and now there’s Pinkpantheress's global reign.

What these records and artists had, which “Aperture” doesn’t, is a full commitment to the fog machine euphoria of the dance club. They sounded good at home, but their heart beat to the pace of the DJ console.

Like Tame Impala’s recent turn towards domestic dance music, “Aperture” gestures towards ecstasy, but lands closer to a saucy cup of orange wine. You may fill your stemless glass up with some in your mid-century modern living room. You may sway alone or with a loved one and kiss. It is, as some would say, a “vibe,” but it’s not the thrill of dance music.