Jem Aswad took us back to the day when music journalism was art with his lively, insightful Variety review of the self-titled debut album from One Direction frontman Harry Styles. Written in the “forward-thinking retro” fashion of the album itself, Aswad’s writing is packed with enough information for a pop history lesson, but way more fun to read than the experience of a typical classroom. School of rock!

For a trip down music journalism’s memory lane, and the heyday of Creem, Crawdaddy and Trouser Press, visit BeatChapter, or NA Publishing.

We must admit, reading about Harry is our new escapist pastime. No slouch in providing hours of fanciful pleasure as uplifting as Styles’ own”Sign of the Times” music video is Variety’s Shirley Halperin, who documented the singer’s surprise performance at L.A.’s intimate Troubadour nightclub and shared an indepth chat with the album’s producer, Jeff Bhasker.

Pop isn’t our thing at MaxTheTrax, but the business of music is, so when Styles’ record debuted at number one and smashed a buncha global records, we noticed. Styles numbers, released today by Columbia Records, show the 23-year-old British singer topped the Billboard 200 album chart with over 230,000 equivalent album units sold, making it the biggest debut sales week for a U.K. male artist’s first album in the US, according to the Daily Mail, which reports the star also achieved number ones in more than 20 countries, including the U.S, U.K, Ireland, Canada and Australia.

With all that album coin, Styles appears to be trading up in terms of living quarters. The Wall Street Journal reports he has listed his three-bedroom contemporary in the Hollywood Hills for $8.495 million. Music isn’t the only thing making money for Harry; he purchased the home for $6.87 million in January 2016.

Harry Styles’ house in the Hollywood Hills is listed for $8.495 million.