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Alexis Celis

Dr. Sharity Nelson

English 1301-122

131 October 2022

Harry’s House Album Cover Analysis

Harry’s House, the third solo album made by singer Harry Styles, was released on May

20, 2022. The album appeals to people who enjoy pop music, introspective music, and most

importantly, to fans who are invested in Styles’Harry himself. The album cover is interesting

because it illustrates Harry Styles’ standing upright in an upside-down living room (Fig. 1). This

album cover uses visual elements such as his expression and stance, background colors, and an

upside-down room to appeal to its audience by allowing the people to relate to Styles’ mindset

and the emptiness he is feeling.

The expression and stance that Styles’Harry is shown doing in the image below allows

the audience to gain a piece of his thought process from making this album. His expression

represents the deep way he is thinking and what type of music and lyrics he wants to propose to

the audience. To. This album was in the making during the COVID-19 pandemic. This also

resulted in the way Harry is thinking because there was a change not only for him but for many

others in the world. To be able to incorporate the situations he went went through during his life

and turn itthe pandemic intoo his music allows his thought process to develop more. This sets

and be able to set the tone and relatability in thefor his album and gives him growth for

creativity. The pandemic was one of his main inspirations for this album because it gave him

time to think carefully. Next, we can see Styles’Harry's position being shown off to one side of

the living room. This portrays that we are looking into his mind. The audience looks through his
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mind by seeing that his body is positioned towards the back corner of the ceiling, and he looks

out of proportion next to the objects. Almost as if Styles’ is visualizing himself in the living

room. Also, the audience may notice the outfit choice of blue baggy pants matched with a flowy

white top and white socks shows that he is comfortable. By wearing this outfit Styles’ gives the

impression of being comfortable with the audience looking into a piece of his mind . His stance

and position show This shows how deeply he is thinking about this album and what from his life

he can input into his music. By doing this, it allows his audience to gain that introspective of his

music to be able to relate to similar situations.

At first glance, when looking at this cover, people's eyes automatically dart to Harry

Styles’ standing upright in an upside-down living room (Fig 1.). In this room, there are usual

living room items such as a couch, chair, picture frame, lamp, side tables, window, and door

frame. This may seem like a lot of items; however, the room still seems to be empty. He is

portraying the overall all emotion through the album cover so that people who appeal to his type

of music feel and relate to the emptiness that he feels. “My whole world was turned upside

down,”, is a common saying that a lot of people use to show that one’s life has changed

completely, either in a positive or negative way. The living room expresses that he wants this

album to be intimate. Choosing to make the living room upside-down, shows that this space is an

internal thing for Styles’. During the interview with Zane Lowe, Styles says, “as I started making

the album, I realized it wasn't about the kind of geographical location it was much more of an

internal thing” (Harry Styles). By using the concept of his home, the living room, it allows the

audience to feel welcomed, yet gain a perspective of the emptiness that tends to go on in his

mindset when he thinks of home.

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The colors that are portrayed in the background are a neutral and beige aesthetic with

small pops of colors; blue, pink, yellow, and green. Looking at the room shown in the album

cover, it feels bare as compared to someone else’s living room which would have personal items,

like family pictures, in the room. The bareness shows that he is usually not home due to his

career. He misses out on a lot of personal things, such as relatives’ birthdays, in his life that he

isn't able to enjoy. The colors, mainly being neutral colors, have an influence on the certain types

of atmospheres. In this case, the album cover gives a quiet atmosphere because of the limited

objects of the room. This shows that the background is what he envisions Harry’s House to be.

For example, in an interview with Zane Lowe, Harry tells Zane that, “And eventually it's just

assumed you're unable to be at stuff. Finally, I was like, I want to balance my life out a bit.

Working isn’t who I am, it's something I do. I want to be able to put that down.” (Styles, Harry).

Although he does miss out on personal things in his life and feels empty, the contrast between

the pops of colors and warmth from the sun shining into the window gives a welcoming feeling

(Fig 1.). His outfit choice of baggy blue plants and with a flowy white top also gives the

impression of being comfortable. In the cover, the colors give off a neutral feeling of

barenessemptiness while also inviting the audience into an intimate space in his mind (Fig 1.).

Overall, this album cover may look just like any other album cover but the visual

elements work together to make this cover unique. People often fail to observe the true meaning

behind an album cover. People often fail to observe the true meaning behind an album cover.

Most of the time many musicians’ album covers give insight into what the music in their album

is going to be like. What makes it so special is that Harry’s House was his third solo album

which was made around COVID-19. This makes the album have much more meaning because he

was able to really go deep into his state of mind to be able to create such intimate music.
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Typically, in album covers, there tends to be a meaning to the photograph that the artists use to

represent their album. Harry chose this image to portray his state of mind on how he feels

whenever he goes home and what is going on in a day of his life. The position and stance,

upside-down living room, and background colors work together to reveal the true meaning and

behind his cover. These visual elements work together to show the thought process of his

mindset for making the songs in the album. and how influential it was to him. 
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Appendix

Photographed by: Hannah Moon

Moon, Hannah. Cover album photo for Harry Styles’s Harry’s House. 20 May 2022. Apple
Music, https://music.apple.com/us/album/harrys-house/1615584999. Accessed 29
September 2022.

Figure 1. Cover album photo from Harry’s House (2022).

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Work Cited

Styles, Harry. Cover album Harry’s House. 20 May 2022. Apple Music.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/harrys-house/1615584999. Accessed 29 September

2022.

Styles, Harry. “Harry Styles – Zane Lowe & Apple Music ‘Harry’s House’ Interview.”

YouTube, 16 May 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L4m5ZMzf3A. Accessed 1 October

2022.