Harry Styles opened the door to Harry’s House, his third album, with “As It Was”—and promptly assured fans that they could expect his new LP to get very real very quickly. Though the single is a jovial jam of triumphant bells, happy synths, and a highly danceable beat, the lyrics tell a darker story. “It’s so interesting: You can [have] a bunch of people dancing to your most devastating experience,” Styles told Apple Music of the dissonance between the song's vibe and prose. “‘As It Was’ is about metamorphosis and a perspective change, and the whole thing of, like, when you have that, it's not something you have time with [where] people go, 'Oh, we'll give you a couple more days with this moment.' You get to say goodbye to your former myself or whatever. It's kind of like, by the time you realize, it's already gone.” “As It Was” has many meanings for Styles, and provides a through line of sorts for the rest of Harry’s House, which showcases some of Styles’ most vulnerable work to date. “To me, it's like everything that happened in the pandemic, it's never going to be the same as before,” he continued. “All of the things happening in the world, it was so obvious that you can't go backwards, whether that is us as a people or me in my personal life, or any of those things. You learn so much in those moments, are forced to face things head-on, whether that is your least favorite things about the world or your least favorite things about yourself. You just can't then pretend that stuff doesn't exist.” “As It Was” was a constant on Apple Music's Today's Hits throughout 2022 following its release, as are many of these songs that soundtracked every high, low, and moment in between this year.