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Dec 17, 2019Fine Line proves that the musician has absorbed the best lesson passed down by California’s great musicians: Don’t be afraid to take chances within a folk- or pop-rock framework, as that’s how you create iconoclastic music that endures.
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Dec 12, 2019If he’s not necessarily ready to play the hero in a relationship yet, he’s certainly coming off as one of the good guys in how he’s defying blockbuster expectations by following his muse back into the classic rock era and casually claiming it as his own.
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Dec 16, 2019Fine Line is very much a document of a 25-year-old deep in the process of figuring out not just what kind of musician he wants to be, but what kind of person. The path from cookie-cutter boy-band member to bona fide rock star is one fraught with a lot to prove both personally and publically, and yet it’s one Styles seems to be navigating with an eagerness to learn, to experience and to experiment.
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Dec 13, 2019Unlike his former One Direction bandmates, who swiftly picked their lanes, Styles is taking his time coming into focus. The results serve him – and his fans – well.
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Dec 13, 2019Fine Line is proof that Harry Styles has grown as an artist since his solo debut. He hasn't reached his full potential, but he's certainly well on his way.
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Dec 12, 2019Lyrically, Styles is at his best when he’s biting. 0000... He’s not exactly mining unexplored territory. But, he’s an Internet Boyfriend – and Internet Boyfriends are non-threatening. As he inches closer towards the adult pop contemporary charts, Styles is thankfully owning his one-fifth of the One Direction power-pop legacy.
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Dec 12, 2019The album is a production tour-de-force. There are plenty of moments, even in lesser songs, when instruments merge in shimmering brilliance and voices stack up in surreal stereo fireworks.
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Dec 12, 2019There is a ‘fine line’ between plain pop music and good pop music that’s interesting to listen to. On this album, Harry Styles definitely falls into the latter category.
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Dec 11, 2019It’s a streamlined, party-ready, primary-colors take on the enduring concept of the rock & roll starman. It’s also as much as fun as anyone short of Bruno Mars is having with a band these days.
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Dec 10, 2019Fine Line is a compelling document of an artist coming to life.
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Dec 10, 2019For the most part, though, Styles’ second album is a total joy. It’s an elegant combination of the ex-boybander’s influences, slick modern pop and his own roguish charm.
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Dec 10, 2019It may not reach the pinnacle of sex or sadness, but Fine Line is a fine album nonetheless.
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Dec 13, 2019Fine Line is a solid, playful pop album, but that matters less than its status as a source of uncomplicated comfort and affirmation. When everything feels hopeless, pop music feels frivolous, but there’s joy in frivolity, and deep meaning in joy.
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Dec 17, 2019Fine Line is entirely inoffensive, but it’s also open-ended, and maybe those questions are the reward. Maybe Harry Styles just wants to keep us guessing.
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Dec 16, 2019Styles is a more confident and precise songwriter on Fine Line than on his debut, even if the progress is incremental rather than exponential.
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Q MagazineDec 17, 2019Free of the shackles that hobbled his debut, Styles manages to show more of his personality here, especially on the Vampire Weekend-style Sunflower, Vol. 6. It's just a shame he can't quite keep up with his ambition. [Feb 2020, p.110]
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Dec 16, 2019Fine Line is a confident step in Styles’s whimsical musical adventure.
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Dec 13, 2019He certainly talks like he wants to make music that stands the test of time and really matters to people; if that's ever going to happen, he'll need to make records go beyond pleasant and enjoyable. Despite the handful of songs that touch of his potential for greatness, Fine Line isn't quite there yet.
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Dec 13, 2019His songs are charming but inconsequential, resolutely old-fashioned, drawing influences from offbeat singer-songwriters of a certain vintage.
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Dec 13, 2019The actual sound of Fine Line is incredible, and most songs have at least one great moment to grab hold of. ... While the music wades into the mystic, his songwriting, pointedly, does not. ... Styles doesn’t have the imagination of Bowie or another pop-rock touchpoint here, Fleetwood Mac, who took their lives and transfigured them through cosmic fantasia or Victorian grandeur.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 2,636 out of 3032
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Mixed: 66 out of 3032
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Negative: 330 out of 3032
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Dec 13, 2019
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Dec 14, 2019
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Dec 13, 2019