So, the first album was soft at times, the occasional bombastic moment, but largely straddled the genre of singer/songwriter. This new album is quite different. Immediately I'll say I prefer this album, it has more immediate appeal. It's more colorful, it's more pop orientated and considering it is currently summer this album feels just right.
Musically it's mixed a lot better, the overall sound is a lot fuller, with the instrumentals being much more forwards. I prefer Harry's vocals on this album, they're a bit denser and less frail. Saying that, the occasional fragility in his vocals on the last album fit the mood, so that isn't a criticism of the first album, but on this album it wouldn't have worked as well. Lyrically and thematically songs are more interesting, not just being break up songs, there's observations of romance and themes of treating people with kindness (It's literally the title of a song). So there's more overall variety and depth which I'm a big fan of.
Moments such as Cherry are very twee but I'm a fan, I enjoyed it as a nice switch up from the (at times) over-produced tracks preceding it. A couple leading singles were before this, both were good, Lights Up and Watermelon Sugar the latter being insanely popular and I'd say with good reason. It's very feel good and summery.
Saying all that, moments do at times feel repetitive, especially lyrically, sometimes songs felt as if they were entirely compromised of choruses and after a few minutes that made the colour disappear a bit. I would have given this album a 4 had it not been for the last two tracks. Treat People With Kindness felt a bit too on the nose, I wasn't the biggest fan of that song, sickeningly sweet and kind. The closer and title track, Fine Line was fairly boring, again being a song which was a chorus, for about 4 minutes and then it closed very well, but a lot of the song was fairly boring unfortunately.
In conclusion this is good, I am a fan, it's an improvement on almost all fronts. Songs like She are absolutely outstanding, very pleasant sound, I'm a fan of the lyrics and man... the guitar solo here is unbelievable. This whole album is definitely worth a listen, I'd argue there isn't a bad moment here.
By: LukaB16