Lights Up
"Lights Up" | ||||
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Single by Harry Styles | ||||
from the album Fine Line | ||||
B-side | "Do You Know Who You Are?" | |||
Released | 11 October 2019 | |||
Recorded | 2019 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 2:52 | |||
Label |
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Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Tyler Johnson | |||
Harry Styles singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Lights Up" on YouTube |
"Lights Up" is a song that was recorded by English singer Harry Styles and released on his second studio album Fine Line (2019). Styles conceived the song's lyrics, which discuss self-acceptance and Styles's embracing of his own identity, after a period of self-reflection. The song was written by Styles, and producers Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon, and on 11 October 2019, Erskine Records and Columbia Records released it for digital download and streaming as the album's lead single "Lights Up" is a pop and R&B song that features multilayered guitars, piano, programmed beats, and a gospel choir.
The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, some of whom found Styles's musical direction refreshing and commented on the song's unconventional structure. Critics have compared the track's production to the music of Tame Impala and Justin Timberlake. In the UK, "Lights Up" peaked at number three on the singles chart and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It peaked in the top 40 on singles charts in other nations and received certifications in Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and the US.
Vincent Haycock directed the song's music video, which features Styles dancing shirtless in a crowd of sweat-drenched people; the video attracted debates about Styles's sexuality. To promote the song, Styles performed it on several television programmes, including Saturday Night Live and Later... with Jools Holland.
Writing and production
Harry Styles, formerly of One Direction, emerged as a solo artist in 2017 with his eponymous debut studio album, which heavily incorporates a 1970s rock-influenced sound.[1] Styles wanted to be "more fun and adventurous" with his next project.[2] Speaking to Zane Lowe of Apple Music, Styles said; "When I listen to the first album now, I can hear all of the places where I feel like I was playing it safe, because I just didn't want to get it wrong".[2] Styles's second album Fine Line, which was released in 2019, is an experimental record that includes power pop, prog-pop, psychedelic pop, folk-rock, funk, and soul influences.[3][4][5] "Lights Up", which is the album's fourth track, has a more pop-like sound than the songs on Harry Styles.[6][7][8]
Styles wrote "Lights Up" with its producers Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon,[note 1] both of whom had collaborated with him on Harry Styles.[9][10] The song was conceived amid a burst of inspiration during songwriting sessions in the first quarter of 2019.[11] Styles described "Lights Up" as "the most unorthodox song" he had ever made; he went through a lot of personal changes while writing it.[11][12] The song is the product of conversations Styles had with himself; he told Rolling Stone magazine, "I think 'Lights Up' came at the end of a long period of self-reflection, self-acceptance".[11] In an interview with Vanity Fair, he spoke about the writing process for the song:
It was written via voice notes with Tyler [Johnson]. He'd send me a track and we'd send voice notes back and forth. I wrote the lyrics and we got together in the studio to record it really quickly. On the second day I decided to put the choir on, which we don't usually do so early on. Once we put the choir on, it made the song and took it to a different place.[12]
The recording took place in The Cave Studio in Nashville, Tennessee; EastWest Studios in Los Angeles; and Henson Recording in Hollywood, California. Johnson programmed the track and played drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and keyboards; Harpoon also played electric guitar and provided additional production while Ivan Jackson played the horns. Johnson, Jeremy Hatcher, Nick Lobel, and Sammy Witte engineered the song with the help of Matt Tuggle and Matt Wallick. Jon Castelli mixed it with help from Ingmar Carlson at The Gift Shop in Los Angeles. Randy Merrill mastered it at Sterling Sound Studios in Edgewater, New Jersey.[13]
Music and lyrics
"Lights Up" runs for two minutes and 52 seconds.[21] Critics categorised "Lights Up" as pop[6][14] and R&B.[7][15] Jon Caramanica from The New York Times characterised its sound as "somewhere between '70s soft rock, lite disco and indie pop."[22] Along with these, NME's Hannah Mylrea noted soul influences in the song.[5] The track includes vintage elements with a modern twist,[1][17] and incorporates multilayered guitars, piano, a gospel choir, and programmed beats with a supple bassline.[6][16][23] The Independent's Roisin O'Connor said the track has "California Dreamin'" vibes and psychedelic grooves.[17]
"Lights Up" eschews traditional song structures and is composed of several breakdown pre-choruses and post-choruses, and a single chorus.[24][25] The song opens with a 17-second instrumental introduction, which is followed by a beat at 00:19 and then the track's opening verse. A guitar-driven pitch drift takes place at 00:28, and is accompanied by Styles's tightly tuned vocals.[25] Styles's voice is distorted in the pre-chorus.[26][27] The central chorus, which begins at 1:18, is uptempo and uses a repeating lead-vocal melody and lyric;[25] it returns the cadences to the chord B♭ and is led by a backing-vocal refrain that begins with "Shine".[25] The track reaches a crescendo shortly before the outro.[24]
The song uses a layered vocal texture with a doubling of vocal lines at the upper and lower octaves.[25] O'Connor described Styles's vocals as "surprisingly airy", which she said contrast with his "sharper delivery" in his earlier work.[17] Critics compared the song's musical style to that of the psychedelic music group Tame Impala and the early works of the American singer Justin Timberlake.[note 2]
The lyrics of "Lights Up" discuss self-discovery and self-acceptance.[18][19][20] In the opening verse, Styles questions life as he sings; "What do you mean? I'm sorry by the way, I'm never coming around. It'd be so sweet if things just stayed the same."[30] In the chorus, he embraces his own identity in lines such as "Lights up and they know who you are / Know who you are / Do you know who you are?"[19][20] There is a personal revelation in the bridge lyrics; "Step into the light ... I'm not ever going back".[1][19] According to Laura Snapes of The Guardian, Styles talks through a "conflicted inner monologue" or the lyrics find "him and a former partner talking at cross-purposes around the void of a relationship".[1] Now writer Rea Mcnamara said that the song was "an all-too-brief ode to self-love and letting go",[31] and in the words of New York critic Craig Jenkins, it was described as "an encouraging sentiment for a day about celebrating what makes all of us unique".[6] Media publications including Time and Paper noted a melancholic edge to the lyrics.[7][19]
Release and promotion
Prior to the release of "Lights Up", billboards bearing "Do You Know Who You Are?", a phrase that had earlier been used on Styles's tour merchandise, were erected in London and New York. The billboards also bore the Columbia Records logo and the acronym "TPWK" (Treat People with Kindness).[8][29] A website titled with the same phrase was also set up; it offered compliments to users who entered their names into it.[32][33] A few hours before the song's release, Styles revealed the single's cover art and title on his social media accounts.[34] Erskine Records and Columbia Records released "Lights Up" for digital download and streaming on 11 October 2019 in some countries as the lead single from his second album Fine Line.[21][10] The same day, Sony Music released the song to contemporary hit radio stations in Australia and Italy.[35][36] A limited-edition 7-inch single containing a new track called "Do You Know Who You Are? (Locked Groove)" on the B-side was issued worldwide in early 2020.[37]
In his 16 November 2019 appearance on Saturday Night Live, Styles delivered his first performance of "Lights Up" along with "Watermelon Sugar".[38] For the performance, Styles rendered "Lights Up" in a stripped-down, R&B stlye; he was accompanied by a trumpeter, backing vocalists, and a live band.[39][40][41] Hilary Hughes of Billboard praised the performance, writing; "With little more than the piano, an acoustic guitar, a trumpet and the intricate harmonies of his back-up singers, Styles belted every high note and danced to the beat of the song's bridge".[39] Styles performed the song again on Later... with Jools Holland on 21 November and at Capital FM's Jingle Bell Ball on 7 December.[42][43] The song was included on the setlist of his one-night concert at the Forum in Los Angeles on 13 December to promote the release of Fine Line.[44] On 18 December, Styles performed the song on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge segment.[45] On 29 February the following year, he performed it at the Music Hall of Williamsburg for Sirius XM and Pandora's secret session.[46]
Critical reception
Music critics lauded Styles for experimenting with pop and R&B sounds, exploring a new musical direction that showed his versatility as an artist[7] who had produced a "high-minded and experimental" track.[47] Laura Snapes of The Guardian praised the song's refreshing sound that distinguishes Styles from his British male contemporaries and from the "narcotised" synth-pop-dominated sounds of that year.[1] Caramanica described "Lights Up" as "a soft-touch re-entry into the pop slipstream" that played to Styles's strengths, demanding nothing more "than a gentle coo" from his voice surrounded by "a plangent sparkle".[22] The Atlantic's Spencer Koornhaber said the song renders "the sort of spooky-yet-easy listening" territory that had seldom been explored since Donovan's "Mellow Yellow".[48]
Critics commented on the song's unconventional structure and arrangement. Chris DeVille of Stereogum said the song shows Styles's ability to "toy around with accessible sounds without descending into the blasé",[49] while Pitchfork's Anna Gaca said was "designed to wriggle through the strictures of pop songwriting".[26] While referring to the single as "alluring", Billboard critic Andrew Unterberger found its direction particularly deceptive, saying the track "never quite tells you where its going and then leaves you off somewhere you don't even recognise".[50] Several reviewers selected "Lights Up" as the best track on Fine Line, praising the song's "subtle, but acute build up", its detailed arrangement of horns, congas, and choir,r[51] making it "an impeccable choice for the lead single" that established Styles's status as a confident and satisfying artist.[52]
Variety's Chris Willman described "Lights Up" as a "distinct modern outlier" on the album and a "heavenly electro-chorale".[53] Caitlyn White from Uproxx viewed it as more of an "invocation" than a "dancefloor banger" but chose it as one of her favorite tracks on the album.[54] The Independent's Roisin O'Connor gave the song four stars out of five, calling it "Styles's most assured song to date".[17] Chris Molanphy from Slate described it as "lightly strummed beach music with ethereal backing vocals".[55] Tim Sendra of AllMusic called the song "inoffensive and sweet", saying it was "only saved from the skip button by the always impressive vocals".[56]
Commercial performance
"Lights Up" entered and peaked at number three on the 18 October 2019 issue of the UK Singles Chart,[57] Styles's second top-10 entry on the chart after "Sign of the Times" (2017).[58] In May 2020, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified the song gold for 400,000 track-equivalent units.[59] The song reached number four on the Irish Singles Chart, becoming Styles's second Irish top-10 hit.[60] In Australia, the song charted at number seven on the singles chart,[61] and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for sales exceeding 70,000 units.[62] The song peaked in the same position in New Zealand[63] and received a gold certification from the Recorded Music NZ.[64]
In the United States, "Lights Up" debuted and peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated 26 October 2019, accumulating 21.5 million streams and 20,000 download sales in its opening week.[65] It was Styles's Hot 100 chart appearance following "Sign of the Times".[66] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the song platinum for track-equivalent sales of one million units.[67] In Canada, "Lights Up" peaked at number 14 on the Hot 100 and was certified platinum by Music Canada.[68][69] The song reached number three in Lithuania,[70] number four in Greece[71] and Latvia,[72] number six in both Scotland and Slovakia,[73][74] and number nine in Hungary.[75] It peaked inside the top 20 in Austria,[76] Finland,[77] Malaysia,[78] Norway,[79] Singapore,[80] and Sweden;[81] and peaked within the top 40 in Denmark,[82] Italy,[83] the Netherlands,[84] Poland,[85] Portugal,[86] and Switzerland.[87] Despite not charting in Brazil, Pro-Música Brasil certified "Lights Up" diamond.[88]
Music video
Vincent Haycock directed the music video for "Lights Up", which was filmed in Mexico City in August 2019[24][89] and premiered on Styles's Vevo account on 11 October 2019, the same day as the song's release.[90]
The video shows Styles dancing shirtless at a bacchanal in a crowd of sweat-drenched people.[91] The dancers drape themselves over Styles, "gently jostling and caressing each other" as he throws his head back in ecstasy.[6][19][92] The video switches between scenes of Styles alone and with the dancers.[93] These scenes are interspersed with shots of Styles riding on the back of a motorcycle with outstretched arms and lurching around a white room.[34][94] The clip takes a psychedelic turn when Styles is seen wading in the sea while bathed in red light and wearing a black, sequined blazer.[95][96] Later in the video, Styles stares at his own reflection while being hung upside down.[19][96] The video ends with an encounter between Styles and some police officers.[97] The visual mostly takes place in darkness with occasional uses of neon red, pastel pink, and blue filters.[6][26]
"Lights Up" attracted debates about Styles's sexuality because he released it on National Coming Out Day and because of the music video's sexually fluid imagery.[98][99][100] According to Alim Kheraj of The Daily Telegraph, the song was "just another example of the queer mythologising that occurs around Harry Styles".[98] Entertainment Weekly's Maureen Lee Lenker said Styles's declaration he used psychedelics inspired the music video's psychedelic temperament. The video suggests people "having sex and feeling sad", which is how he described the album to Rolling Stone.[34][101] Tallahassee Democrat writer Jia Alonso called the video "ethereal" and every shot "deliberate", noting the swift transitions between every scene. Alonso said the entire video was filmed with "warmer tones", having Styles as the central point of every location change.[97] Georgia Slater of People wrote the visual portrays "a sexy and more emotional side of Styles".[96] Similarly, W's Jocelyn Silver described it as "a steamy, moody, Ryan McGinley-esque piece of work".[95] Dylan Kelly from V said Styles shows a new and "authentically carefree identity" in the video, and called it "a celebration of [his] personal journey of self-discovery".[93]
Track listing
- Digital download / streaming[21]
- "Lights Up" – 2:52
- 7-inch vinyl[37]
- "Lights Up" – 2:52
- "Do You Know Who You Are? (Locked Groove)"
Credits and personnel
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Fine Line.[13]
Recording
- Recorded at The Cave Studio (Nashville, Tennessee), EastWest Studios (Los Angeles, California), and Henson Recording (Hollywood, California)
- Mixed at The Gift Shop (Los Angeles, California)
- Mastered at Sterling Sound (Edgewater, New Jersey)
Personnel
- Harry Styles – vocals, songwriting, backing vocals
- Tyler Johnson – songwriting, production, backing vocals, drums, drum programming, bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards, engineering
- Thomas Hull – songwriting, electric guitar, additional production
- Jason White – choir, contractor
- Brandon Winbush – choir
- Nikisha Daniel – choir
- Tiffany Smith – choir
- Tiffany Stevenson – choir
- Ivan Jackson – horn
- Jeremy Hatcher – engineering
- Nick Lobel – engineering
- Sammy Witte – engineering
- Matt Tuggle – assistant engineering
- Matt Wallick – assistant engineering
- Jon Castelli – mixing
- Ingmar Carlson – mix assistant
- Randy Merrill – mastering
Charts
Weekly charts |
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[62] | Platinum | 70,000‡ |
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[88] | Diamond | 160,000‡ |
Canada (Music Canada)[69] | Platinum | 80,000‡ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[113] | Gold | 45,000‡ |
Italy (FIMI)[114] | Gold | 35,000‡ |
Mexico (AMPROFON)[115] | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
New Zealand (RMNZ)[64] | Gold | 15,000‡ |
Norway (IFPI Norway)[116] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
Poland (ZPAV)[117] | Platinum | 20,000‡ |
Portugal (AFP)[118] | Gold | 5,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI)[59] | Gold | 400,000‡ |
United States (RIAA)[67] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Release history
Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Various | 11 October 2019 |
|
[21] | |
Australia | Contemporary hit radio | Sony | [35] | |
Italy | [36] | |||
United Kingdom | [119] | |||
Various | Early 2020 | 7-inch vinyl |
|
[37] |
References
Notes
- ^ Kid Harpoon is credited on the single under his birth name Thomas Hull.
- ^ Critics who compared "Lights Up" to the music of Tame Impala and Justin Timberlake include Billboard's Hilary Hughes,[28] The Guardian's Ben-Beaumont Thomas,[23] MTV News' Madeline Roth,[18] The New York Times's Jon Pareles,[16] NME's El Hunt,[20] Rolling Stone's Brittany Spanos,[10] and Variety's Nate Nikolai and Jem Aswad.[29]
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- ^ Zaleski, Annie (17 December 2019). "With Fine Line, Harry Styles transforms into a California-pop iconoclast". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
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- ^ "Five Burning Questions: Billboard Staffers Discuss How Harry Styles 'Lights Up' the Hot 100 at No. 17 This Week". Billboard. 21 October 2019. Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
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