I wonder why I didn’t make this connection sooner, and I apologise if someone else has already made it and I didn’t realise, but the algorithm has only just come to the aid of my own research.
So. Harry, as we already know, cited the influential post-punk project The Durutti Column, led by guitar maestro Vini Reilly, as a major inspiration for his fourth album. He named the Manchester band, alongside LCD Soundsystem, as key inspirations whilst shaping the ambient and indie textures of his record. He even invited them to perform at the Meltdown Festival he curated in June.
This influence is particularly evident in ‘American Girls’, the second single released from KATTDO, and specifically in the intro: It’s a clear homage to the track ‘Future Perfect’ from their 1996 album ‘Fidelity’. The similarities are uncanny.
And yes, I’m fairly certain someone else has already made this connection, but the track “Future Perfect” is mainly known for being featured in Season 2, Episode 3 (“Sundae”) of the FX series The Bear. It plays during a silent, pivotal character montage highlighting Sydney’s journey and feelings of isolation.
And this comment on Reddit
made me think about what Harry said about ‘American Girls’ in the interview with Zane Lowe.
“The song to me is like, it’s actually quite a lonely song in a lot of ways. I watched like my three closest friends get married, and actually seeing them trust in something and risk something to find something truly fulfilling in a way that isn’t as like shiny and on paper as exciting. Watching them get married, I was like, ‘I’m single, so I’m having all the fun. And ‘American Girls’ is actually about watching them get married, and there just is a magic when you find the right person that you want to be with. I think watching them do that and seeing that it doesn’t come without any uncertainty, it doesn’t come without any risk. It’s like being truly vulnerable with someone, sharing a life with someone like that. Having the time to stop and assess all of it and really look at my life from a bird’s eye view and go like, ‘What do I actually want in my life?’ I have all these things around me all the time. It’s hard to pull those things in without making space for them. So if I stop everything, then I get to decide what I want to bring back in,” he continued. “What are really the things that I want in my life? If you’re touring all the time and you’re doing this all the time, and all these things, there’s no space to really choose.”
He also said he had “a real honest conversation” with himself about what he wants his life to look like in five years and what changes he needs to make to create that future.
“I want to be fulfilled, and I want to be in great relationships with people, I want to have great friendships with people, I want a family. I want these things,” he said. “It just allowed me to go like, ‘OK, what do I have to do to create space to allow these things to happen? I can’t just expect them to just happen to me.”
Isolation, loneliness, an inner journey, thoughts about the future... Not only does it all make sense, but I take it as further confirmation that 1. The ‘Let It Rip’ tattoo is inspired by the series The Bear, as I had already presumed in May; 2. Although it’s a matching tattoo with Zoe, it has nothing to do with her, and she, in all likelihood, got hers later just to make it look like a couple’s tattoo and push the public narrative. This is also because we know that KATTDO was already complete by 25 June 2025, and they were first spotted only two months later, on 24 August. ‘Let It Rip’ and all possible references to the series The Bear pertain solely to Harry, his personal journey, and the way he personally relates to the TV series. And not to Höe, however much they try to gaslight us.
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