Harry Styles’ new album, Kiss All the Time. Disco Occasionally, should be titled Dance All the Time. Cry Occasionally. On his new song “Paint By Numbers,” the singer takes a break from providing funky bops like “Aperture” and gets more vulnerable than ever, acknowledging a past relationship while analyzing his own celebrity, in search of a little humanity.
On the plucky guitar ballad, Styles takes stock of the consequences of fame, from his own self-image to his popularity’s impact on his loved ones, which is a recurring theme on Kiss All the Time. “It’s a little bit complicated when they put an image in your head, and now you’re stuck with it,” he sings on the second verse.
He even appears to reflect on his split from Olivia Wilde, whom he dated for two years after she directed him in Don’t Worry Darling in late 2020. “Holding the weight of the American children whose hearts you break,” he sings. “Was it a tragedy when you told her, ‘I’m not even 33’?” Wilde shares son Otis and daughter Daisy with her ex-husband Jason Sudeikis, and Styles wasn’t in his 30s yet when they broke up in 2022.
Styles concludes the track by contrasting his celebrity persona and his true self, lamenting the choices and sacrifices he must make to sustain his career. “It’s a lifetime of pickin’ from one or the other,” he sings. “Kids with water guns, watch them run.”
Harry Styles’ “Paint By Numbers” Lyrics
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Read the full lyrics to Styles’ confessional new song below.
Oh, what a gift it is to be noticedBut it’s nothin’ to do with meYou’ve got to wonder if there’s a reason to believeIt’s a lifetime of learnin’ to paint by numbersAnd watchin’ the colours runIt’s a little bit complicatedWhen they put an image in your head, and now you’re stuck with itYou’re the luckiest, oh, the ironyHolding the weight of the American children whose hearts you breakWas it a tragedy when you told her, “I’m not even thirty-three”?A little self-compassion and a life within your meansIt’s a lifetime of pickin’ from one or the otherKids with water guns, watch them runIt’s a lifetime of learnin’ to paint by numbersAnd watchin’ the colours run
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