What's The Real Meaning Of Fine Line By Harry Styles? Here's What We Think

"Fine Line" is the title of Harry Styles' second album and one of its singles.

It's been nearly four years since Harry Styles gifted the world with 2019's "Fine Line," his second solo album since One Direction took an extended (and seemingly perpetual) break in 2015.According to Chart Masters, who analyzes traditional album sales and other streaming metrics, "Fine Line" is, so far, Styles' highest-selling album. If you recall, the single "Watermelon Sugar," which gifted the star with his first-ever No. 1 single, according to Billboard, was literally everywhere for a stretch.

When promoting the album, Styles spoke with Music Week and revealed why "Fine Line" had a much chipper sound than his self-titled first album. "I was a little subconsciously afraid of making fun music having come out of the band," he said. "I tried to get rid of that a little bit." And while Styles definitely succeeded in churning out a batch of lighter songs the second time around, there were definitely a few tracks that were much, much heavier. One of the most memorable is "Fine Line," which shares a name with the album. Here's what its lyrics could mean.

"Fine Line" appears to be a song covering the positive and negative aspects of a mystery woman in Harry Styles' life. During the first verse, Styles sings, "You've got my devotion / But man, I can hate you sometimes," which implies that their relationship sometimes drifts into unhealthy territory (via Genius). The lyrics also suggest that Styles may not be completely invested in the relationship, as he then sings about thinking of someone else once drinks get to flowing. Verse two lays out more conflicting traits about his current lover, before he transitions into a repetitive chorus saying "We'll be a fine line." Although the lyrics are pretty straightforward, Rolling Stone described the track's sound as "eccentric." Styles agreed. "It's a weird one," revealed the singer. "It started simple, but I wanted to have this big epic outro thing," he added, before noting his love of string and horn instruments. 

As far as the song's possible inspiration, you can much forget about it being about Styles' ex-girlfriend Camille Rowe. Although StyleCaster cited Styles' interview with Zane Lowe, where Styles admitted that "Cherry" was inspired by the famous model and even featured her voice, the pub didn't notice any obvious connections to her in the song, "Fine Line." 

Although "Fine Line" never achieved the success of some of the other singles from the album, it's near and dear to Harry Styles' heart. During an interview with NPR, the musician revealed that, in addition to the Camille Rowe-inspired "Cherry," it was his other favorite track. "My two favorite songs on this album are probably 'Cherry' and 'Fine Line,'" revealed Styles. The singer also shared that he and his songwriting team wrote the song while he was taking a break from his first tour. "It was January 2018 and I was at my friend Tom's house, who I work with, and we just started strumming this thing, and we started layering these vocals, and it turned into this 6-minute thing." 

After completing the track, Styles took it on the road and listened to it repeatedly. He also revealed that it's one song he's become proud of. "It's one of those songs that I've always wanted to make." In fact, Styles loved "Fine Line" so much that he named his album after it. "Well, I wrote a song called 'Fine Line,'" said Styles during his 2019 Capital FM interview when discussing how he settled on the album name. "I wrote it very early on in the process. And it kind of felt like when I wrote it, it was always going to be the last song on the album."