Wall Street Journal August 08 2020

Fine Line is the second studio album by English singer and songwriter Harry Styles, released on 13 December 2019 by Columbia and Erskine Records. Preceded by three singles — "Lights Up", "Watermelon Sugar" and "Adore You" —, Fine Line debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and number one on the Billboard 200, making it Styles' second consecutive number-one album in the US. The album had the third-largest sales week of 2019 in the US and broke the record as the biggest debut from a British male artist since Nielsen SoundScan began. It was also the first number one on the Billboard 200 in the 2020s. Fine Line has been described as rock, pop and pop rock, with elements of prog-pop, psychedelic pop, folk, soul, funk and indie pop.

A sealed, unlabeled box sat undisturbed for decades on a shelf in the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael tape vault on Front Street, its contents an enduring mystery, even to those few with access to the vault. All David Lemieux knew about that box when he became the Dead’s archivist was that it contained tapes belonging to Bear—Owsley Stanley, the Dead’s first soundman and architect of the Wall of Sound. Even in the Dead Heads’ Holy of Holies, the taped-up box was tantalizing. But this was Bear’s personal property, and so he didn’t touch the box out of an abiding respect for the elder luminary of sound. Bear’s archive of Sonic Journal recordings had been kept safe for him for years within the Grateful Dead’s vault—over 1,300 reels of tape stored in heavy-duty cartons like old banana boxes. At any time, David could have popped the tops and explored them to his archivist heart's content. But they were off-limits without the nod from Bear.