Harry Styles

Come-hither pop does not loom large on Harry Styles, the long-longed-for debut solo venture from the 1D heartthrob. Strummed ballads are the order of the day, as is rock, and MOR cuts that sound a tad too Gary Barlow, too soon--prematurely matured, perhaps.

Styles’s curveball is more eccentric but more appealing, with an endearing quality of relish in its musical adventures. It is so old-fashioned it may actually come across as something new to its target audience.

There's a handful of above-average tunes here, and an earnestness that suggests Harry Styles will have a fruitful solo career.

Taking inspiration from the best seems to have paid dividends, but it doesn’t half make you wonder what the real Harry Styles sounds like.

Styles is remarkably good as a confessional singer-songwriter. ... Not all the album’s musical homages work: Styles is desperately ill-equipped for the rock’n’roll raunch of Only Angel and the glammy Kiwi. Alas, his voice sounds no more like Rod Stewart than it does Rod Hull, while the lyrics are a torrent of hoary pub-band cliches that suggest his heart isn’t really in it.

Styles has opened himself up, as best he can, to his audience, and by gathering a solid team around him to help achieve that he’s created an immersive, well-produced collection of songs that isn’t trying to prove anything in particular to anyone.

The missteps don’t detract too much from this ambitious, if slightly unfocused, debut.

Styles plays all his roles gamely but unthreateningly.