Single of the Week: Harry Styles' "Lights Up"

By Lewis Ulm

After an extended social media hiatus and a lack of new music for over a year, Harry Styles continues to surprise fans both new and old with a triumphant return to the pop-music spectrum. But despite the inevitable popularity and appeal this single will draw, it’s clear that Lights Up is not a cash-grab off his fame, but rather a showcase of Styles at his most comfortable, steering his creative direction fully and passionately through a cathartic and dreamy musical display. 

Releasing his self-titled debut to widespread critical acclaim and satisfaction, the expectation for any new music from Styles was to continue playing with elements of rock and folk, using his unique voice to croon through more heartfelt ballads and jams. What we got instead was Lights Up, an energetic bop containing several new elements of instrumentation and vocal bravado that was unheard of from Styles’ previous repertoire. Catchy guitar licks and a persistent rhythmic clap parade the lyricist throughout the track, backed altogether by a grand choral arrangement that work to highlight the talent of Styles himself.

This instrumentation is experimented with as the song progresses, as vocal synthesization provides its own instrument to form the choruses and adds an interesting element to shake up the traditional structure and expectations of a pop song. Styles expertly orchestrates the track with these vocal highlights, as the pace and rhythm require silences to give full force to the bops that carry the lyrics along a dazey river of funk and an irresistible groove. 

And even though lyrically the song is not one of Styles’ strongest or complex, they work well in the context of the groove, as their partial melancholy is reinvented through the instrumentation. The song clearly is an exploration of one’s identity, with Styles singing “Lights up and they know who you are… do you know who you are?” And while questioning this nature throughout the quiet choruses, these are interrupted with the triumphant verses upheld by the heavenly “shine” that is consistently repeated. There is something cathartic in these verses and this repetition, and more lyrics coincide with this embracing of one’s self: “I’m not ever going back,” Styles gracefully croons while backed by the choir.

So of course these lyrics have drawn fans to theorize on who this Harry Styles is. With the song released on National Coming Out Day, fans and the media have conspired over his sexuality, with many convinced that this song is Styles coming out as bi-sexual. Styles himself has not confirmed this, but the attention shows just how much his life is put in the spotlight. The price of fame is something Styles is coming to terms with, and Lights Up appears to be a personal anthem for his newfound contentedness with the public eye. 

But despite the rumours, theories and attention, Styles sounds happy. It’s a clear echo of exultation, the resounding lyrics and jubilant score adding fuel to his new fire. Whether the theories are true or not, one thing is certain: the lights will always be up on Harry Styles, but they will never bring him down.