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Sequencing has become somewhat of a lost art in the age of the shuffle, but not to Harry Styles’ eyes – or ears. Hear Variety‘s Hitmaker of the Year, he says, an album’s cohesion depends on a good list of songs. How many variations did the singer consider before deciding on the final order for the 12 tracks of “Fine Line”? A little less than a hundred, he admits.
Styles producer Kid Harpoon says singer and songwriter’s ‘meticulous’ approach to sequencing isn’t all that different from how he determines his live show’s set-list . “When we were touring the arena, we would practice different sets,” he says, adding that he remembered thinking, “I don’t know; It won’t work; It doesn’t seem fair to me. But the end result, Kid Harpoon said, “was perfect – it’s really hard to do this on paper, but Harry definitely has a knack for it.”
When it came to the “Fine Line” album, half the internal battle was already won as Styles had determined up front that “Golden” would kick off the release and that the track principal would end it. It left “everything in between,” Kid Harpoon adds.
“Harry is very specific in that he wants an album, not a collection of songs.” To test different setups, the two would take a walk and listen.
Styles’ point of view was simple: “How do you want people to hear your work?” He said. Variety. “Because I sit and listen to albums, and I care about the way things work, what it makes me feel and the story it tells. It is natural that I emphasize this.
Styles recognizes “starting with the bookends”. They too have a purpose. “So if you have the album on repeat, it can be a circular thing,” he reveals. “And then it’s just a matter of building it. You’ll have a song and you’re like, “This sounds like track six. I do not know why; it just feels. You listen to the end and you understand: there are too many, or I am bored here, or it comes too quickly. … The patience with the sequencing is so important and the sequencing on this one definitely took a lot longer than the first album.
It is not lost on Styles, however, that we live in an age of playlists and shuffles. As he remembers secondhand: “Someone was telling this story about their young son. They were driving. The son was in the back of the car and he was saying, “Daddy, why did you play eight Bruno Mars songs one after the other? And the dad thought, ‘Oh my God, my son doesn’t know what an album is.’ “
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