Harry Styles’ Debut Solo Album Has Arrived

We’ve seen it before. After achieving stratospheric success, many boy band members set out to show the world they can make it on their own. The guys of One Direction are no exception.

After announcing their hiatus in 2015, the members began working on their solo projects. Zayn Malik came through his Mind of Mine album; Louis Tomlinson and Niall Hornan have released several singles; and Liam Payne is gearing up to drop his first solo track “Strip That Down.” But this week, all eyes are on Harry Styles.

The 23-year-old’s highly anticipated debut album dropped Thursday night, more than a month after he released its lead single “Sign of the Times.” Since then, fans have heard a handful of songs off the 10-track project, including “Sweet Creature” and “Ever Since New York.” It was clear Styles was headed in a new direction.

“A lot of my influences, and the stuff that I love, is older,” he told Rolling Stone. “So the thing I didn’t want to do was, I didn’t want to put out my first album and be like, ‘He’s tried to re-create the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, Nineties.’ Loads of amazing music was written then, but I’m not saying I wish I lived back then. I wanted to do something that sounds like me. I just keep pushing forward.”

Styles also said he wanted to be authentic and show a side of himself many people haven’t seen: “I wanted to write my stories, things that happened to me. The number-one thing was I wanted to be honest. I hadn’t done that before.”

You can stream Styles’ debut solo on Apple Music and purchase it on iTunes. You can also listen below via Spotify.

In conjunction with the project’s release, Styles will release a documentary titled Harry Styles: Behind the Album. The Los Angeles Times reports the film will be available exclusively on Apple Music and will include behind-the-scenes footage of the album’s creation.