This week, WhatsOn music editors bring you the top songs to listen to this week. Don’t forget to add them to your playlist!

As It was – Harry Styles

This song by the One Direction band signer Harry Styles is distinctly out of step with contemporary chart trends. “As It Was”, zips ahead about a decade, bouncing along to drum machines and synth hook reminiscent of A-Ha’s “Take on Me.” This song seems to be about having sex, feeling sad, then getting over it

“HOLDIN’ ME BACK GRAVITY’S HOLDIN’ ME BACK
I WANT YOU TO HOLD OUT THE PALM OF YOUR HAND
WHY DON’T WE LEAVE IT AT THAT?”

The song’s lyrics are about loneliness, a drugged-up puddle on the floor, and fielding a call from a concerned loved one. The lyric goes by “You know it’s not the same as it was”. “As It Was” is two minutes and 47 seconds long song written by Harry and songwriters Thomas Hull and Tyler Johnson, who have also co-written songs like “Watermelon Sugar,” “Adore You,” and “Golden” and “Falling” with the former One Direction member. Harry Edward Styles is an English singer, songwriter, and actor whose musical career began in 2010 as a solo contestant on the British music competition series The X Factor, following suggestions from his mother.

Heat Wave- Glass Animal

Since its release, “Heat Wave” has been a big success even by Glass Animals. The track has been synced into FIFA’s soundtrack, named Triple J’s. They are a band built for a festival ecosystem that was waning before the pandemic and now seems to extinction, ecumenical and vaguely hip-sounding. It’s a moody song about longing for something that is never coming back. They have billed it as a tribute to the communal experience of live music.

Woman- Doja Cat

Lyrically, Doja Cat is defining what it means to be feminine and that she is here to be counted. Much of Doja’s work involves sexuality and over sexuality, which is a bit of a throwback to Madonna. In “Woman” she sings about women being mothers, tomboys, princesses, and sexual. All of these aspects are feminine and one is not more important than the others. Musically, Doja Cat uses some Infectious Afro-Pop with a Jazz base and various forms of percussions. This track shows that she is here to stay and is someone you have to take seriously.

The Lickerish Quartet – New Days 

Our much beloved, and ever so slightly (if bizarrely) imaginative band are back with a new number, New Days, and judging by the sound of things they haven’t lost any of that charm of theirs’s. Days, when you listen closely to the lyrics, are about being in the now whilst heading into what’s to come but reminiscing about days past. “The irony’s not lost this time guess your number’s changed/that familiar feeling that I thought I left behind” Lickerish Quartet clearly hasn’t lost any of their creative genius which clearly pours through in this song, even the accompanying video is somewhat outside the box.