"Sunflower, Vol. 6" by Harry Styles, Tuesday, August 17, 2021
MOUTHFUL OF TOOTHPASTE BEFORE I GOT TO KNOW YOU. As summer wears on, the days get shorter little by little in July and August. At first you don't notice it. The 6 pm shadow comes earlier, bringing a relieving breeze. The mid-day sweat starts to cool, and you find that the plants that you hadn't seen when it was too hot in early July to enjoy the outdoors have now grown. The corn husks, now taller than a Scandinavian man--if you enter a field of them, you could be lost for hours. And in late July to mid-August, sunflowers grow tall. These beautiful flowers have a beauty that is both masculine and feminine at the same time. In pictures they look as fair as any flower. Yet averaging between 10-20 feet tall, sunflowers are not delicate. Sometimes they can be quite intimidating. There's even a phobia named for the irrational fear of the flower, Helianthophobia. Styles' ninth track on Fine Line, "Sunflower, Vol. 6" is a song of musical surprises. House grooving, soulful backup singers, varied vocal runs, guitars and a sitar? or dulcimer?, sound effects of taking a deep breath in, and the drum beat that breaks down (which reminds me of the drums in The Juliana Theory's "Can't Go Home") all create a bright, summery sound. The lyrics about falling in love in the late summer, make me think of being a little less than hygienic--despite the toothpaste. "Sunflower, Vol. 6" adds sweat to the otherwise sticky, sweet, delicious mess of Fine Line. "Sunflower" is sexy in the way that a carpeted hippy van and it's young long, unwashed haired driver is wearing a white skin-tight jumpsuit and a bead of chest hair sticking out, put through an Instagram filter and maybe some psychedelics for the mood.
I WAS JUST TONGUE TIED. Allan liked being at his grandmother's house as long as he didn't have to see his grandmother. As a child, he spent a lot of time in the winter in his grandfather's hay-bales, wrestling with his cousins or playing with the barn-mouser, a grey tabby. In the early spring he spent late hours with his uncles and his father in the sugar house, boiling sap into syrup. But in the summer, he spent his time playing in his grandmother's unkempt water garden. The garden was built into the hill around the jagged stone steps leading to the house and the garden wrapped around the house. These rocks became slippery in the rain or if the sprinkler hit them, making the pathway impassible to grandma's sitting room. From the main rock stairs, another set of stairs lead to the back of the house. Behind the house was grandma's sunflower patch, and the tall grasses, overgrowing the path to grandma's sheep barn. After he saw a fat black snake, Allan never attempted to see the sheep, so he stayed with the sunflowers, though, they too looked over him, judging him like his grandmother judged the family. Every one in the large family was on a rotation for grandma's favor and coldness. Some cousins she doted upon until she didn't. Allan's family never seemed to be in grandma's good graces. "I'm Grandma," Allan said in a deep voice behind the house to his sister and cousin. They rolled on the floor with laughter. "Stay out of my garden!" Suddenly a shadow appeared from the deck above the garden. "What are you kids doing?" a deep voice called. Even from the distance Allan turned around and saw the chin hair of his grandmother. Screaming, all the kids ran away. "Get out of my garden!"
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