Two years on from the debut that turned a boyish heartthrob into an electrifying troubadour, Harry Styles is back with a new album. Unlike its predecessor – brazenly brassy; rattling with riffs – the upcoming Fine Line is something softer and more relatable.

The album comprises 12 tracks, each one more vulnerable than the next. Perhaps this is because it’s not been the easiest year for Harry, who reportedly broke up with French model Camille Rowe in July 2018, one year after the duo started dating. Listening to the album in full, it’s hard not to empathise with the 25-year-old, whose experience of a breakup sounds just like anybody else’s. Nobody, of course, is above the perils of heartbreak. Though we suspect Harry weaves his pain into art better than most of us, who, let’s face it, are more likely to reach for a tub of ice cream and a boxset than a notepad and a guitar.

Ahead of its release date next week, Miss Vogue listened to Fine Line from start to finish. Here’s everything you need to know:

It’s his most honest songwriting yet

While many musicians are reluctant to write about their private lives, often sending messages through symbolism and tacit imagery, with Fine Line, Harry has proven that he is not one of them. Instead of holding his cards close to his chest, he scatters them on the table and asks you to take a good look. Lyrics like “I don’t wanna be alone” (“Golden”) and “What am I now?” (“Falling”) invite us into the mind of someone on the brink of a breakup. While asking “Do you think it’s easy being of the jealous kind?” and referring to himself as an “arrogant son of a bitch” in “To Be So Lonely” reveals a new side to Harry’s character we haven't seen, or heard, before.

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His ex-girlfriend has a starring role

When Camille met Harry, she probably didn’t expect to have an entire album written about their relationship. But, as Nora Ephron put it, “everything is copy”. It turns out that “everything” is lyrics, too. Take “Cherry”, the track that fans have quite rightly speculated is about Rowe (it also happens to combine both Harry and Camille’s names). Not only does Harry directly reference Camille’s French heritage (“I just miss your accent”) and her new boyfriend, gallery owner Theo Niarchos, (“Does he take you walking round his parent’s gallery?”), he even remarks on her wardrobe choices, singing: “There’s a piece of me in how you dress”. He also laments the possibility of Camille recycling her pet names (“Don’t you call him what you used to call me”) and says he misses her friends. But Harry goes one step further because Camille herself features on the track, with a few seconds of her giggling and French speaking used to bring “Cherry” to a surprisingly uplifting conclusion. Sound-wise, the song has the same saccharine melodies as “Sweet Creature” (from the previous album), with delicate guitar picking and soft vocals that lend themselves to sentimentalism. That being said, “Cherry” is probably the best song on the album.

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There’s something in there for One Direction fans

Harry has come a long way since his boyband days, but there are subtle nods to One Direction’s soul-baring sound throughout his new album. We hear them mostly in “Falling”, the weary piano ballad in which Harry is self aware – “I write too many songs about you” – but nonetheless wallowing in post break-up solipsism (“I’m in my bed and you’re not here”). Elsewhere, there’s “Golden”, which is the catchiest track on the album. With its addictive refrain and adoring lyrics (“you’re so golden”) – presumably also written in homage to Camille, who is blonde – it sounds like a classically playful 1D track, only with verve and the hindsight of a songwriter who knows better.

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His influences have changed dramatically

With his last album, Harry ricocheted between David Bowie, Queen and The Beatles, blending rock, groove and acoustic sounds. This time, his influences seem no less eclectic, only they have become an even broader church. Songs including “She” and the title track “Fine Line” descend into balladic instrumentals in the style of Pink Floyd – but not before the former gives Arcade Fire a run for their money, while the latter nods to Bon Iver in its first verse. Then, there is the buoyancy of “Canyon Moon”, a fast-paced country track that wouldn’t sound amiss on a Mumford & Sons album, and the choral singing anomaly: “Treat People With Kindness”, which sounds a bit like it could have been taken from an advert in the 1950s. Harry’s voice has changed, too. It has become smoother and more effortless, at times verging on Years and Years frontman Olly Alexander’s distinctive falsetto to reach higher notes with satisfying ease.

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There are some obvious (and less obvious) references to sex

In August, Harry told Rolling Stone that Fine Line was about “having sex and feeling sad”. The former is certainly more subtle than the latter. In “Watermelon Sugar”, Harry talks about “getting washed away in you” and calls on the listener to “breathe me in, breathe me out”. Fans who’ve suggested the song is about oral sex have gone viral on Twitter. But Harry brushed this claim off when asked about it by Zane Lowe in a recent interview for Apple Music. After Zane suggested that the song is about “the joys of mutually appreciated oral pleasure,” Harry simply replied: “Is that what it’s about?” There are other suggestive lyrics that Styles would have a harder time brushing off, like in “Fine Line” when he sings about “spreading you open” after referring to an elusive “temptress”. Meanwhile, in “Sunflower”, he admits to a lover that he “couldn’t want [her] anymore”, adding “let me inside”. Like with so many of the other tracks on the album, one can’t help but feel this is also aimed at Camille. Elsewhere in "Sunflower", Harry sings: “I’ve got your face hung up high in a gallery”, possibly riffing off the fact that the model left him for a gallery owner. Everything is a song, after all.

Fine Line by Harry Styes is out on 13th December.

Olivia Petter is a lifestyle writer at The Independent.

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