Fine Line proves that the musician has absorbed the best lesson passed down by California’s great musicians: Don’t be afraid to take chances within a folk- or pop-rock framework, as that’s how you create iconoclastic music that endures.
Not unlike having watched his earliest moves week-by-week on TV way back when, 'Fine Line' is a compelling document of an artist coming to life.
For the most part ... Styles’ second album is a total joy. It’s an elegant combination of the ex-boybander’s influences, slick modern pop and his own roguish charm.
Fine Line is proof that Harry Styles has grown as an artist since his solo debut. He hasn't reached his full potential, but he's certainly well on his way.
Fine Line is very much a document of a 25-year-old deep in the process of figuring out not just what kind of musician he wants to be, but what kind of person. The path from cookie-cutter boy-band member to bona fide rock star is one fraught with a lot to prove both personally and publically, and yet it’s one Styles seems to be navigating with an eagerness to learn, to experience and to experiment.
Fine Line offers a lot to think about if you want to dig into it. If you’re looking for sunny pop hits, it has those too.
Fine Line is a solid, playful pop album, but that matters less than its status as a source of uncomplicated comfort and affirmation.
Fine Line doesn’t really do much to demystify the ambiguous former One Direction frontman, but the fact that he refuses to adhere to any one identity is what makes this brisk record so wonderful. It’s almost like Styles is trolling us.
As a work of beguiling retro-modern pop, Fine Line is hard to find glaring fault with—but it’s also hard not to wish he had more aggressively summoned the improper, iconoclastic Harry we all know lurks beneath the surface, waiting for his moment.
Styles is a more confident and precise songwriter on Fine Line than on his debut, even if the progress is incremental rather than exponential.
From Father John Misty to Weyes Blood, there are way more interesting singer-songwriters than Styles mining the musical seams of classic Americana, but few of them have the attention of a mass, mainstream, young pop audience. If all that Fine Line achieves is to open up new directions for his One Direction fan base, it will have justified its existence.
He certainly talks like he wants to make music that stands the test of time and really matters to people; if that's ever going to happen, he'll need to make records that go beyond pleasant and enjoyable.
Fine Line is a confident step in Styles’s whimsical musical adventure.
Fine Line brings Harry Styles no closer to finding his own musical style and voice.
What Fine Line really is is a pop album with rock-flavored production.
#6 | / | Us Weekly |
#11 | / | Idolator |
#19 | / | Uproxx |
#23 | / | Rolling Stone |
/ | Esquire (UK) |