The Harry Styles Series – My journey through his music – is happening on YouTube.

A few weeks ago I was on YouTube watching some of my favorite videos.  I noticed that one of the suggested videos said: Harry Styles covers Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer Live on The Howard Stern Show.

I was intrigued immediately.  Gabriel’s 1986 ‘So’ is one of my favorite albums of all time.  It was mixed by Kevin Killen and I’ve said many, many times that I know it be one of the best mixed albums ever.

Where the story takes a twist is that while I’ve been writing album reviews, interviewing bands and artists on a daily basis – I thought it might be fun to hear and watch something together for the first time with anyone that wanted to take a journey with me.  Maybe it would be your first time too.  Maybe you are already a massive Harry Styles fan. Whatever the case, I thought a journey through his music and achievements might be something fun that readers of the site and subscribers to the YouTube channel might enjoy.

What I wasn’t prepared for, comes in two parts.

Part one: The outpouring of support from fans of Harry Styles that were so willing to guide me through this process of exploring his musical catalog.  No hate.  Just love all around as we share a common interest in an extremely talented and seemingly humble global superstar.  I asked where I should go next and I received hundreds of comments filled with advice and recommendations.  The only hard part was making sure I didn’t miss any songs or performances that were so passionately written about from viewers of the video I put out.  But never fear – I took notes and have formulated a temporary path.

Part two: As I write this, I am shocked at how much I’ve enjoyed these songs and performances.  As a recording artist, I have a level or respect for any artist that is out there doing their thing.  Even if I don’t enjoy the music as much some other artists.  I knew it wouldn’t be horrible but I had no idea it was going to be something that I couldn’t get enough of.  I am literally to the point where I just want to put on his first album and just listen for hours.  Over and over, again and just lose myself in it like so many people do when they discover an artist or record.  

But I’m not going to do it, dear readers.  I’m going to take this journey as the songs come to me.  It’ll be hard to resist listening and watching the performances that have been recommended but I started this journey with everyone’s support and I am going to continue on that way.  

So where have I been?  As I noted previously, I started with Styles’ performance on the Howard Stern Show where he covered ‘Sledgehammer’.  Won’t give it all away but I walked away from it really impressed.  Harry even said that the song was one of the best mixed ever.  Heck yeah it is!  And found what may be my favorite drummer currently – Sarah Jones.

Since I come from a rock music background, many people commented and tweeted to me that I might enjoy the song ‘Kiwi’.  They were correct.  Enjoy it, I did.  I actually did a two-for-one dealsky and watched the video and listened to the song, both for the first time in that video.

When my reaction video came out – the number one comment I received was something like this – “You’ve GOT to watch the live performance of Kiwi on the Late Late Show!”  I did.  I loved it.  It made me even more excited to continue on this journey.  I asked everyone if they could vote on the next song we would watch together. 

I put up two choices: His cover of the Fleetwood Mac classic, The Chain in the Live Lounge or Tiny Desk.  It was very close but The Chain won out by the smallest of margins.  Not only did I get into the performance, I started to realize that I might be becoming a huge fan of his and his band.  They all just rock out so perfectly, it’s hard not to get into what they do, in a live setting.

So what’s next?  I NEED to see this Tiny Desk performance everyone keeps talking about.  So that’s where I’m headed.  After that… well, you will see in the coming days and weeks.  Check back here because I will be updating this every time I launch one of these reaction videos.

I’m having a blast and I hope that you will continue to join me on this wonderful experience.  If you are new here, take a look at the first video in this series and catch up!  Here’s the series so far on YouTube.  I’ll see you back here very soon.

Time to get my Tiny Desk on.

-Tommy Marz

You can follow Tommy on Twitter and Instagram let him know what you think.

Update!

So I decided to drop a bonus episode.  The song?  Only Angel.  Here’s how I got there.  I was sitting on my couch watching television and my phone lit up.  I received a text from a friend of mine that is also in the music business.  Won’t get into names but like I said in the video – this person is very familiar with being on the Billboard Chart.  Anyway, the text read: Tommy I’ve been watching your videos.  You gotta listen to Only Angel, it’s right up your alley.  You’ll love it.  

My excitement couldn’t wait, so I decided that was the next song I would listen to and since we have a good flow going here, I opted to wait until the next morning so we could all do it together.  As you will clearly see in the video – I loved it.  It’s now my favorite song by Harry Styles.

The text I received after I replied with how much I loved it?  “Told ya.”

After my exhilarating experience with Only Angel, I was fired up to get to one of the most suggested performances – Tiny Desk.  But along the way, the point was raised: “Maybe you should give a listen to the first and second records in their entirety.”  

I decided that’s where I want to go BUT I already promised Tiny Desk and as I said in the vid – Who are we without our word?  So I dropped this video yesterday.

Stay tuned as I will be updating this as I upload new episodes and hear and watch the music of Harry Styles.  It’s been a great journey so far!

-Tommy

Update – 07/06/20

I have a few updates!  Twitter and Instagram have been great places to interact with fans of Harry but it also is a place where people send me links to their favorite performances.  Even cooler is when the person who shot a video that has already seen a ton of traffic dm’s you and sends you a link to watch for a possible bonus episode.  

This was very much appreciated.  Thanks to the HS Love Live channel on YouTube!  As you ill in the video below, I really enjoyed the performance and was enlightened to another great song that we may never get a studio version for.  But I’m happy to at least have this live version.

I was on my way to starting my dive into the first Harry Styles record – HS1 and I was sent another fan shot video.  Kelsey reached over Twitter and said she had a cool video of Harry performing The Chain but this time in a live concert setting and wondered if I wanted to see it.  My answer was a lightning quick – YES.

She then uploaded it to twitter and away we went.  I hated to prolong entry into HS1 – but having already seen him perform hit in an earlier video.  But again I was blown away by the performance and this time the footage was very centered on Harry and I was able to focus onto his stage presence for the reaction vid.

It was FINALLY time to dive into the self titled debut album from Harry Styles.  I made the decision to break up the album into three parts.  I thought maybe it would be a little easier to digest doing it that way.  For me personally, I was very happy with the way this flowed.

‘Meet Me In The Hallway’, ‘Sign Of The Times’ and ‘Carolina’ were up first.  I’ll let the video below give the full details but what I was introduced to was an eclectic start to the album.  Acoustic guitars, trippy Pink Floyd vibes and funky grooves that had me stunned an amazed at the same time.  We were off to a great start.

I threw in a quick bonus episode before I continued on the three part HS1 series.  The song for the bonus was a cover of the Little Big Town hit – ‘Girl Crush.’  

In that performance I got hear a lower register of Harry’s voice.  It has a great tone all the way down there.  The stage and lighting for the performance was visually stunning.  Styles and the band did not disappoint during this song.  I liked hearing a bit of a country tone in their performance.

Part two of the series featured four songs.  ‘Two Ghosts’, ‘Sweet Creature’, ‘Only Angel’ and ‘Kiwi’.  Having already heard (and LOVED) both Only Angel and Kiwi I decided to make this episode a four songer.  

I walked away from this episode thinking that this album may have taken a place among my top 100 albums of all time.  I put a lot into my criteria when I decide which albums belong.  One part of that thought process is the amount of filler material an album has.  Up to this point, I haven’t encountered a song that I don’t want to go back and listen to .  I like it that much.

Before I finished up the album with Part Three in the series, I was sent a tweet from Sonia on Twitter.  Sonia has been very helpful in this journey.  She sends me a link to the song ‘Anna’.  She said she was looking around YouTube and found the video for a cover of George Michael’s ‘Faith’ I did years ago.  Some of you may be wondering, just like I was.. what does this have to do with Harry Styles?  Sonia says, “go watch ‘Anna’ and then we’ll talk.”  She also let me know that there is no studio version of this song – just like ‘Medicine’.  That peaked my interest even further.  

Like everything I have witnessed up until this point, I thoroughly enjoyed it and had a lot of fun watching and sort of daydreaming of being up close at a show and getting a vibe like that of the song.  It just has such a laid-back, chill feeling.  It’s almost reminiscent of the way Peter Gabriel used to close his shows and had dancers come out and had  pretty much everyone dancing in the aisles.  It was great then and this gave me the same feeling now.

Oh and when Harry sang the words.. “I guess it would be nice..”  Yeah.. that was sort of a goose bump moment since I have such an attachment to that song.  Part of the reason why I’m able to do what I do is because of that cover and the wonderful George Michael tweeting it to his followers.  I feel like all of this madness really started after that.  So thanks to Sonia for sending it.  Thanks to Harry for performing it.  And thanks to George for everything he contributed to the music world.

Finally, it was time to finish up HS1!  But to be honest I was actually a little sad.  That buzz of getting to explore the first album and being surprised, amazed and anxious was about to be over.

What I didn’t know was that I was about to hear one of my favorite songs on the album and maybe the best sing along chorus I’ve heard in a long time.  ‘Ever Since New York’ completely blew me away and I’ve been singing along ever since.  The album then ends with the song ‘Woman’ and ‘From The Dining Table’.

While I was sad that the album experience was over I was happy that I now had more songs to add to my ever-growing playlist.  I mentioned in the video that ‘From The Dining Table’ had great vocal mix choices and once I got it pulled up in my earbuds I was enthralled in the song once again.  

HS1 was the rare album in my opinion that didn’t contain a song that I disliked.  This isn’t the norm for me.  While I have my favorites, this is album is a full listen from me when the time permits.  I smell an album, song ranking coming soon.

But before I got into a full on ranking of the albums’ songs I was requested by so many of the channels viewers to watch Harry’s performance of his hit song, ‘Sign Of The Times’ on the Graham Norton Show along with everyone watching.  

I loved everything about this show.  The intimate setting.  The look.  The performances of everyone and the crowd interaction when Styles changes things up a bit.  At this point I am anticipating a terrific performance every time I watch him and his band.

I was excited but a little apprehensive about ranking the songs from the first album.  Excited because I pretty much keep a list of almost everything in my life.  Top 5 favorite shakes.  Top 5 (100 actually) favorite albums.  Top 5 favorite TV shows, etc.  Apprehensive because these things can go badly, quickly.  My intention is not to piss anyone off but to open dialog about all of these songs.  Like I said in the video – these are just my preferences – just like you have an order of preference.  I just happen to put my order in the video and plus, ya know, this is what I do here at Sound Vapors!

The other part of this whole equation was ranking the actual songs.  This was not easy but I tried to explain my choices going song by song.   I won’t go into the full list here but I went into it thinking that ‘Kiwi’ would be number two on my list.  It wasn’t.  But I still love it, just the same.

One other thing I did during the ranking episode was answer viewer questions and comments.  I enjoy the interaction between viewers and myself.  I try to get to as many comments as I can in the comment section but I like to read them aloud as well. I figure if someone takes the time to write a comment or ask a question, the least I can do is try to get back to them in one shape or another.

Moving on to the second Harry Styles record – ‘Fine Line’,  I was originally going to break up the album into four parts.  I was suggested this by many Styles’ fans since they explained to me that’s how it was meant to be broken up.  That sounded great to me.

Here’s the thing.  The album started with ‘Golden’ and I almost had a meltdown.  Seriously, I had to stop the camera and go back and listen on my own before I could move on.  After the next two songs I said, “Eff it.  We’re doing the whole thing tonight.”

That’s what happened.  That’s why it’s the longest single sitting video I’ve put out to date.  But at some point I lost track of time and got completely engulfed in the album.  It was a intensely euphoric feeling.  I felt completely spent and exhausted after I was finished.  The thought crossed my mind that I might have just finished by journey.  I think viewers of the channel felt it as well.  And you know what?  They couldn’t have been more supportive!  A great bunch of people, I can tell you that.

Spent about a week absorbing ‘Fine Line’.  In my car.  Shooting hoops.  Making breakfast.  Taking a shower.  You name it, I probably listened to that album while I did whatever I was doing.

I felt this would never be complete without an official ranking of the record.  So I started listening track by track and writing down my thoughts and I began formulating a list.

In the meantime I was being sent may links to live performances and one that I have been recommended and sent the most was a show where Harry and the band played ‘Kiwi’ three times in a row to end the show and tour.  I had to see this.

It was as amazing as everyone said.  It was exhausting as everyone said.  I waked away thinking, “now that’s how you end a show!”

Now it’s time to start editing tomorrows episode.  My ranking of ‘Fine Line’ by Harry Styles.  See ya in a bit.

Update!

It’s October 1, 2020.  Almost seems perfect that I’m making my new entry into this article at the start of Harry-ween season.  

It’s been about 2 months since I last updated my Harry Styles journey.  A LOT has happened since then.  I’ve put out 11 more Harry videos which includes a rabbit hole trip into all of his cover songs.  I loved them so much that I’ve decided to host a tournament that his fans will vote on and decide which cover is the best.  I’ve affectionately named this venture – The CAGEMATCH.  Go watch the Styles’ cover vid playlist and you’ll understand the reference much more.  Here’s the latest video and there you’ll be able to watch the entire playlist to get caught up, if you so desire.

Like I mentioned in my last update before today – I was on my way to ranking the ‘Fine Line’ album.  This started a.. well let’s call it a firestorm since this is a family friendly article.  Ok, ok.. it wasn’t that bad but some people felt very strongly about some of my ranking choices.  And like I always say, dear readers: If you come at ‘ole Tommy boy here, you’d better bring your own list to compare.  To my delight, this was mostly what happened.  

It spilled over onto Twitter and we talked it out.  It was refreshing and peaked my curiosity even further.  Here’s the Fine Line ranking video.

After this video/ranking dropped and had some really good back and forth I decided that I may have slept a little too hard on the title track.  So I revisited it and you know what?  They were correct.  That song is special.  In fact, it was around this time I started thinking about adding songs to an EP I was getting ready to release.  The song ‘Fine Line’ made my musical brain start thinking a little differently and gave me both the inspiration and motivation to explore a different way of writing and recording a new song.  That song went on to become ‘Lullaby To Summer’.

In the meantime, another phenomenon started to happen.  Fans of Harry Styles (and good music) decided to make a push and get ‘Watermelon Sugar’ to number one.  It was a magical week.  I got involved also.  I couldn’t help myself.  I tweeted and interacted with fans and tried to get as many people as possible involved.  When it eventually went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 – I dropped this video.  Man, I was so happy.

Before I finished up my own EP – ‘Chasing Light’, the song ‘Golden’  began to dominate my mind.  I found it hard to concentrate on almost any other music.  This song has not only become my ultimate summer jam, it has become one of my all time favorite songs. EVER.  I was so inspired by its greatness I wrote and article on why the world needs ‘Golden’ to become a massive hit. 

So just for the heck of it I did a video to a live performance of ‘Golden’ – just because.  Just because it rules.

Before I leave you with today’s update, there is talk.. Heavy talk that ‘Golden’ will be the next single and video.  I haven’t wished this hard for a song to be released as a single in a long time.  I’ve heard it a thousand times.  You’ve heard it a thousand times.  Yet, I still feel the need to hear it on the radio and get it in front of as many people as possible.  It’s that good.  Trust me I would never steer you wrong.  

Since this is the summer of ‘Golden’ for me and many others that I interact with on Twitter and Instagram, I will always be thankful that this song has even given new meaning to my own album that came out. 

It did well.  Best selling and charting record I’ve ever had.  I tell you this because all of these things.. press, interviews, articles are all so amazing and I’m extremely grateful.. but my own EP will always be connected to this time in my life when I discovered Harry Styles and was inspired beyond belief.  And specifically how ‘Golden’ has such a positive impact on my life.  You ask me at this exact time last year.. I would’ve bet you real money that the next year would never go the route it has gone.  Crazy.

What’s next?  You tell me.

-Tommy

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