Album Background
In December of 2019 the internet’s British boyfriend released his sophomore album, “Fine Line“. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, making it his second one following the footsteps of his debut album “Harry Styles” (2017). The album includes singles “Lights Up”, “Adore You” and “Watermelon Sugar”; all three also saw similar success on the Billboard charts.
After announcing the album, Styles posted a short clip on Youtube showing the LP version of the album. It included the double LP along with a double-sided poster (which featured a rather uh…risque picture of the Brit). Two versions of the LP were available on his webstore, standard black and limited edition coke bottle green. Target had also announced that a Target edition of a black and white splatter would be available. Of course in true Harry Styles frenzy fashion, the limited editions become difficult to obtain almost immediately. However the standard black, naturally, is the easiest one to obtain to this day.
Take a listen and comment yours!
As a gift during Christmas in 2019, I received the standard black edition of “Fine Line”. Seeing as Harry Styles is and continues to be one of my favorite artists of all time, it was one of my favorite gifts that year. This album especially is one of my top ten albums of all time. I even had the chance to see this album performed when Styles made his stop in San Antonio for the “Love on Tour 2021” (side note: one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended, worth the 2 year wait)!
Vinyl Features
As mentioned earlier, I own the standard black version of the album, which looks like this:
The album itself includes 12 tracks with the longest track running at 6 minutes and 17 seconds and the shortest track being 2 minutes and 52 seconds. As a result, the vinyl edition comes with 2 LP discs; sides A and B both contain 4 tracks each while side C has 3 and side D only 1. The discs themselves are presented in what is called a gatefold design. The best way to describe it is that it opens the same way a children’s picture book would open. Typically they would have something like pictures from the album photoshoot/the creation process or song credits. Styles included two different pictures from his album photoshoot and the record discs came in a sleeve with the lyrics.
Final Thoughts
A majority of time, how much you like listening to the album on vinyl depends on how much you enjoy the music itself. As stated before, I very much enjoy this album and I enjoy it even more on vinyl. There are certain sounds that become elevated on vinyl and Harry Styles takes a lot of inspiration from the sounds that debuted on vinyl only. This creates one of the perfect modern sounds to be put on LP. Overall, I really like the way the LP was packaged and the package design. The discs themselves, while only being standard black still hold a beauty to them (and according to pictures, the black/white splatter and the coke bottle green are equally if not more beautiful). I rate this 9.5/10. Let me know what you think in the comments below! Check back next week for the second album revisit!
Featured Image Take by Me
