When sequestered at home, days seem to run together into one impossible mess. But now they won’t because I’ll remember to divide time spent sheltering in place as the time before Harry Styles dropped his ineffable ode to going down and the time after.
In the video for his super-sweet single “Watermelon Sugar,” Styles enjoys the summer treat with some gorgeous women on a faultless California day. There’s so much touching and celebration of bodies and closeness it almost feels like a dream—and in the current reality, it is, and a marvelous one at that. While Styles may be a sex symbol for many, this is truly a moment of no return for the singer: he has never been this explicit and simultaneously playful, and the result is unexpectedly thrilling.
Styles begins his music video with this clever dedication, just short of slapping a PG-13 advisory on an otherwise extremely charming, fun, and flirty visual with a whole lot of playful groping. If this is what dropping molly with Styles is like, count me all the way in:
“Watermelon Sugar” opens with young Harold basking in the Malibu sunshine at a table stacked with an ideal breakfast: tea, orange juice, a slice of watermelon, a croissant, and a large butter dish.
He caresses a watermelon with the delicacy no pinkie-ring wearing man has ever before.
And soon he is transported to some impossibly sexy beach party with cheerful models and tons of watermelon to snack on. If at this point in viewing the video your mind has yet to wonder somewhere impure with the heavy-handed imagery, I don’t know what to tell you. This is Call Me by Your Orgy. This is something kind and friendly and playful and also down to clown. All sexy imagery should elicit this much joy.
He has been fed; he has eaten.
In conclusion, it’s much too early for this business. And yet, who doesn’t mind an afternoon delight?
Watch “Watermelon Sugar” below, in full. Come on.