His debut 2017 single was the brazenly enormous Bowie/Queen-style ballad “Sign of the Times.” An artist in his position could’ve come off as insecure or overreaching, but Styles has relaxed with winning ease into his role as a gender-fluid, genre-fluid megastar, a new-look rock & roll gentleman who can flip from guitar raunch to soul to soft rock and convincingly pull off a come-on like “I know that you’re scared because I’m so open.” He’s a Mick Jagger for our more enlightened age.

With his third album, Harry’s House, due this Friday, he’s pulled off the neat trick of making his music at once elegant and more refined but also warmer and more intimate — the polished-marble smoothness of Steely Dan with the generosity of an Al Green or Yo La Tengo record.

Harry’s House is bright with synths and horns, often steeped in slick, sticky synth-pop and R&B.

On songs like “Keep Driving” and “Grapejuice,” the airy, sumptuous grooves clear a space for Styles to explore a sense of desire that’s tinged with openness and vulnerability.

Harry Styles, Harry's House, One Direction