"As It Was" by Harry Styles // Song Review
As the lead single off Harry’s House in 2022, "As It Was" completely set the tone for the rest of the project. On this track, Harry Styles perfectly soundtracks the feeling of opening yourself up to the next chapter and embracing the idea that nothing is the same as it was, and maybe that's a good thing. The inevitability of change, and the willingness to let go and allow yourself to move forward, sits at the heart of everything this song represents.
He repeatedly sings, "in this world, it's just us, you know it's not the same as it was", which at its core sums up the meaning of Harry's House so perfectly. It's a song rooted in dealing with a transitional period of life, which everyone will interpret differently in their own lives, but the emotional truth of it remains universal. It's an incredibly powerful song because it fully owns the fact that change is always going to come and instead of wallowing in what could have been or the fear of what's to come, it embraces the idea that what matters most is how we choose to move through those periods of life that can scare us.
In his interview with Apple Music, Harry said, "'As It Was' is about metamorphosis and perspective change, and the whole thing of, like, when you have that, it's not something you have time with, and people go, like, 'Alright, we’ll give you a couple more days with this moment and you get to say goodbye to your former self,' or whatever it is, and by the time you realize, it's already gone. I think a big part of kinda evolution of what music you make as is ... it doesn't matter if people want you to be that thing that they always loved about you or they want you to be that person, because you're not that person anymore. Everyone is changing, and I think there's no reason to not approach music that way, and kind of let it change and turn out differently than you started. You don't always get to realize something happens, and you kind of look at it and be, like, 'Wow,' and then you get to decide whether that is devastating or brilliant, and accept the fact that it's probably both."
The meaning can be interpreted in many different ways and is a song everyone will have their own association with, which makes it so special. "It just felt like the thing I wanted to say, the thing I wanted to be doing and the kind of music I wanted to make coming back," he added in his Apple Music interview in 2022.
The song was co-written alongside his frequent collaborators and producers Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, who have been integral to all three of his albums thus far. "Harry was sitting on the Moog One and I liked what he was playing, so I sat down and played as he started to write the melodies and the lyrics," Tyler Johnson said in an interview with Music Week. "I said to Harry, 'We need a lead line' and he just came up right away with the 'Dah, dah, dah...' part. He didn't hesitate. Then he started writing the second verse and referring to himself in the third person. So much of this song just came from Harry's heart. And then Tom, with this magical sense of hooks that he has, came up with the idea of doing, 'You know it's not the same...' after the chorus, which I was very impressed with. That turned out to be a very smart move."
This was also his first release post-pandemic, following his massive sophomore success of Fine Line in late 2019, an album that arrived just a couple of months before the world shut down. In that context, "As It Was" felt especially timely, because truly nothing was the same as it was anymore.
It was originally written as a much slower song before the synths and electric guitars transformed it. Harry even called the original voice note "...a death march" in his interview with Apple Music. When you strip away the bright, cheery, 80s‑inspired instrumental - one that sounds very reminiscent of a-ha's "Take On Me" in a lot of ways - the lyrics themselves are actually quite heavy, which is part of what has always made it such a great pop song. It has so many layers to it and a depth that reveals something more than what it might seem on first listen. Lyrically he is at one of his most vulnerable points on the entire album, opening up about family, addiction, dealing with change, the pandemic, and moving on from past hardship.
"Answer the phone, 'Harry, you're no good alone, why are you sitting at home on the floor? What kind of pills are you on?'" he sings in the second verse. "Ringin' the bell and nobody's comin' to help, your daddy lives by himself, he just wants to know that you're well". The bridge is also amazing and such a highlight of the entire album, especially for the way it represented Harry's current stage of life at the time of its release, "Go home, get ahead, light-speed internet, I don't wanna talk about the way that it was, leave America, two kids follow her, I don't wanna talk about who's doin' it first".
"It's got such a mellowness to it and it doesn’t really go for any big moments," Tyler Johnson added in his interview with Music Week. "Harry had the vision for it to be the lead single. I'm very impressed at how he saw that it was what his audience wanted, and also people in general - it's not just his fans who have taken to the song. When it came out on Spotify and I pressed play I got a good feeling in my stomach like, 'I like that people are hearing this song.'"
"As It Was" became Harry's second solo number one single in both the UK and the US, topping the charts in 45 countries. On the Billboard Hot 100, it spent 15 non-consecutive weeks at number one, becoming the longest-running US number one by a UK act in history and the overall fourth longest running number one in the chart's history. It is also is among the highest-streamed songs of all time on Spotify, surpassing the rare milestone of three billion streams. "As It Was" is such a standout song by Harry, it undoubtedly shaped a major part of this record and even helped him score the coveted Album of the Year win at the 2023 Grammy Awards. In 2024, Rolling Stone even ranked it as the 500th greatest song of all time in their revised list, making it the most recently released song to be included.
Since 2020, we have seen many different takes on what it meant to make music in times of a worldwide pandemic, which for a lot of musicians meant looking inward even more and approaching their art in an even more intimate, reflective way than ever before. "As it Was" feels like a culmination of all of those experiences and pent-up energy of all we have been collectively experiencing since that time. No one is the same as we were last year, five years years ago, a decade ago, or even yesterday. We are ever-changing as people and this song captured that feeling of being on the brink of a metamorphosis perfectly.
Thanks for reading! I have written about Harry Styles' music countless times in the past, including my full Harry's House review + my experience hearing this song live for the first time when he made Madison Square Garden Harry's House for 15 nights in 2022. All of that and more are linked here and below - many more are coming soon! Check out more from my song of the week series here. ☆
This marks my last song of the week post of the year, and it felt like such a strong note and message to end on with "As It Was". This has been such a fun project to work on every single week, and I'm so grateful to anyone who has taken the time to read any of the posts from this series in 2025. There's a very exciting new year ahead for music, and I can't wait to see what it brings.
TPWK!
Photo Credit: Columbia Records, Harry Styles, Hanna Moon
Related Posts:
Harry's House // Harry Styles Album Review
Harry Styles Love on Tour 2022 // Madison Square Garden is Harry's House! Night 15
Late Night Talking by Harry Styles // 7" vinyl, CD & behind the scenes zine
2023 Grammy's // Best of the Night
Fine Line by Harry Styles // 5 Year Anniversary Album Review
Harry Styles Love On Tour 2021 // New York City Night 2
Comments
Post a Comment