Harry Styles and his touring band stopped by NPR for an intimate Tiny Desk Concert featuring songs from his album Fine Line. The former One Direction member stripped things down in his peaceful and melodious four-song-set, that highlights his intimate songwriting abilities.
Styles, who is wearing a powder blue sweater with a chicken on it, and his band kicked the set off with an acoustic version of his song “Cherry.” Before jumping into his song “Watermelon Sugar,” he gives us some background and explains that the song was written during the tour for his debut album in 2017, during his day off in Nashville.
“It’s probably the longest it’s ever taken me to finish a song,” he went on to explain. “We kind of liked it when we first had it and then I really hated it for a long time and it kind of came back and it seemed to kind of kept coming back into the mix.” The songs title came from the Richard Brautigan book of the same title.
Styles goes on to describe the song as describing the “initial euphoria” that comes along with new love. The feeling and excitement can be felt from the unplugged version’s funky arrangement of a triple-acoustic guitar and angelic backing vocals coming from the band’s drummer, keyboard player, and rhythm guitarist.
Before playing “To Be So Lonely,” Styles introduced his guitarist and collaborator Mitchell Rowland whiling describing how the song was made, including the sad bit about everyone singing along the loudest during the line about him being an “arrogant b—–d.” The song has become a hit on the TikTok app.
The set ends with the song “Adore you,” which Styles says is about a fish. The song is actually similar to his previous songs about those first initial feelings that come with a new relationship.
Styles will begun his tour for “Fine Line” on June 26 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Styles is scheduled to perform three back-to-back shows at Madison Square Garden in New York, from July 6th through the 8th.
Listen to Fine Line Below.