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
Read the full lyrics to Styles’ confessional new song below.
Oh, what a gift it is to be noticed
But it’s nothin’ to do with me
You’ve got to wonder if there’s a reason to believe
It’s a lifetime of learnin’ to paint by numbers
And watchin’ the colours run
It’s a little bit complicated
When they put an image in your head, and now you’re stuck with it
You’re the luckiest, oh, the irony
Holding the weight of the American children whose hearts you break
Was it a tragedy when you told her, “I’m not even thirty-three”?
A little self-compassion and a life within your means
It’s a lifetime of pickin’ from one or the other
Kids with water guns, watch them run
It’s a lifetime of learnin’ to paint by numbers
And watchin’ the colours run
