Over the weekend, in an interview with the Sunday Times, Mick Jagger said that Harry Styles, who has long been compared to the slinky Rolling Stones frontman, does not sound or move like him. Adding, that Styles, who is almost exactly 50 years younger than him, “just has a superficial resemblance to my younger self.” Jagger’s comments arrive just two days after the long-awaited debut of Harry’s third album, “Harry’s House” and while they may seem biting, they ring true, because Styles has never sounded more like himself. 

While the 28-year-old musician’s self-titled debut album and sophomore Fine Line are stacked full of references to a bygone era of rock stars like Jagger and Fleetwood Mac, Styles ushers in a new type of rocker, one all his own with Harry’s House. Each track reveals a certain kind of confidence that comes with having done this all before, a decade-long career under his belt now, his foot off the gas, the pressure of establishing himself as a serious musician lifted. Styles, who has two highly-anticipated movies, Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman slated to premiere this year, is simply having fun with it. On dance tracks like, “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” he chuckles and scats, “Music for whatever you want /Scuba duba dubub boo.” He’s about to be a movie star, so why not actually enjoy being a rock star for the time being? 

Styles carries this sense of humor, a newfound lightness, through several tracks. In a move similar to Taylor Swift, Styles, rumored to be dating director Olivia Wilde, who he met on the set of their upcoming project, also opens up about being in love in an almost too obvious to be true fashion on, “Cinema.” Notoriously quiet about his private life, Styles for the first time alludes to what we already know, “You got the Cinema /It’s you / And I’m not getting over it, Darling is it cool / If I’m stubborn when it comes to this?” Hint taken. 

At 16 years old, a curly-haired high schooler working in a bakery in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, Styles left home for the first time, when Simon Cowell formed the British boy band, One Direction. If you listen closely, Styles has been trying to find his way back ever since. But on Harry’s House, he’s arrived. He lets go of the idea that home will hardly ever be a physical location, but instead is built by those around him. It’s a realization he’s spent three albums working toward. On “Ever Since New York” from his self-titled album, he surrenders “Cause there’s no antidote.” Two years later, on “Golden,” he ponders if “loving you’s the antidote.” And now, he’s reassured that “you’ve got the antidote” on “Daylight” a homecoming track where he would “fly to you / You’d be the spoon Dip you in honey so I could be sticking to you.” 

In a recent interview with Zane Lowe, Styles discusses Billie Eilish’s similar rise to fame and “breaking the spell” for him as he ages out of being a “prince charming of pop.” 

In a sense, her success, which first began when she was 17, gave him a gift, a moment to breathe, “I would like to really think about who I would like to be as a musician,” says Styles of that moment. No longer chasing that kind of youthful high that comes with fame at that age, and settling into a more comfortable maturity, unlocking a freedom that he’s grateful to Eillish for. “You know it’s not the same as it was,” as he proclaims on the chart-topping single. 

Performing Harry’s House in full for the first time at his album release show in New York on Friday, Styles wore leather pants and a red and white shirt covered in hearts. Unveiling a collection of his most authentic-sounding songs, Styles literally wore his heart on his sleeve. He asked the audience, “Please feel free to be whoever it is you’ve always wanted to be tonight.” A piece of advice he has given to countless arenas full of screaming fans around the world on his previous tour. But this time around, he’s taken it himself.