Around November 21st, ads started popping up on Twitter advertising ‘Eroda’, an island in the Irish Sea. Twitter users were immediately sceptical – no such island exists. Further investigation, particularly by user @TheBrotographer, pointed towards Eroda being a potential school project, a DnD campaign, or even promotion for a murder-mystery app, until the connection was finally made to one Harry Styles.
Fans noticed that Styles had been spotted in a Scottish village filming what seemed to be a music video, alongside models sporting the same ‘bold’ hairstyles that VisitEroda names as a key feature of the island youth. After brochures advertising the island appeared in New York, people were certain that this was leading up to the release of ‘Adore You’, a track from Styles’ upcoming album Fine Line, especially since Eroda is ‘Adore’ backwards.
Dropping on December 2nd after nearly two weeks of speculation, the video for ‘Adore You’ is a touching tale of a boy (Styles) who lives as an outcast on a mysterious island full of superstition. A more wholesome The Shape of Water narrated by Spanish star Rosalía, Harry Styles finds a reason to live in a fish he cares for, eventually bringing the isle of Eroda together (even if he does snatch them bald in the end).
The track itself is pure perfection, a funky ode to as-yet unrequited love that ignores the more tragic tone of typical tracks on the subject in favour of a casual, free acceptance. In an interview with ENTERCOM, Styles said “it’s about that initial infatuation stage when you get that heavy feeling of just bliss, like a blissful, very joyous connection with someone. We wrote this in a day, we just had so much fun making it.” A new, Styles-esque take on the dance-around-your-room male pop, ‘Adore You’ is a standout track, bold and unabashed in its lean into cheesiness. It comes as no surprise that Harry Styles was behind the PR campaign of the year, with the isle of Eroda becoming a worldwide Twitter mystery in a matter of days. His effortless cool continues to build excitement around the former One Direction member’s sophomore album Fine Line, and it’s safe to say ‘Adore You’ proves he’s worth the hype.