Artists are known to take and insane amount of time and effort into designing an album cover. Countless hours go into creating an album and the final bow on top of the album is the cover. Harry Styles is no different. While his covers may seem somewhat simple or meaningless, they are far from it.

HS1

Harry’s first debut solo album cover symbolizes so much. Before the start of his solo career, Harry was part of a boy band named One Direction. When the band announced their spilt, fans anxiously awaited the solo careers of each band member to start. This whole first album, HS1, demonstrated a sort of rebirth for Harry and his music career. This album cover definitely symbolizes that. Both the body positioning and use of water here show vulnerability and reflection. I think the main goal of the water use here was to create a baptism-like situation. Nothing symbolizes re-birth more than a baptism. Whether Harry’s hands are being used into the water to clean his face or just simply cover it, the hands gesture to the idea of rebirth. The chain hanging down his back feature a lotus flower. The lotus flower is known to also symbolize, big surprise here, rebirth along with purity. This cover represents the start of Harry’s solo career as a new time in his life. It’s safe to say the album ended up doing okay, generating about 41 million monthly listeners. 

Fine Line

Next up, Harry’s second album, Fine Line. This album was described as pop rock, with elements of progressive-pop, folk, soul, funk and indie pop. The pop-rock element is visually evident in the use of the fisheye lens on this cover, which is commonly seen on rock album covers. The photographer, Tim Walker, is known of his use of the fisheye lens in most of his work. The main element of this cover is the colors. The pink seen not only in the background, but also bright displayed by his shirt ties into the pink water from the HS1 cover. Harry has been known to use pink to fight standard masculine stereotypes. This cover seems to have more of a playful and light element to it, which can be heard through the songs on this album, as Harry begins to let loose and really express himself in his solo career!

Harry’s House

Harry’s most recent release, Harry’s House displays a fun and whimsical image of Harry standing in a home, but everything seems to be upside down. This causes it look like Harry is standing on the ceiling. The room shown here features the bare minimum you may see in a living room. The couch, lamp, chair, and singular hanging artwork are definitely items in the room, yet the room still seems so empty. The idea here is that a home is much more than a house. The house seen on the cover below would not be referred to as a home because it is lacking all of the important elements of a home, like love and family. That is why the image is upside down. The idea of a house being a home is overturned in a sense and a new idea of love and happiness that makes a home a home can be heard throughout this album.