Harry Styles' new album was inspired by the work of Harry Nilsson.

Harry Styles

Harry Styles

The 23-year-old star has revealed he listened to a lot of the American singer's records while he was developing ideas for his self-titled debut record, and Harry was dazzled by his songwriting talents.

Harry shared: "I listened to a lot of Harry Nilsson while making the album. His lyrics are honest, and so good, and I think it's because he's never trying to sound clever."

The singer also admitted he was still undecided about the creative direction of his album right up until he chose the tracklisting.

He told USA Today newspaper: "I was very much working out what I wanted the album to be up until picking the tracklisting, and I wanted people to go through that with me when listening to that, instead of picking a sound and writing ten of the same things."

Harry's single 'Sweet Creature' has been linked to his One Direction bandmate Louis Tomlinson on some internet forums.

And while the singer has remained tight-lipped about who the record concerns, Harry said it shouldn't be too hard for fans to figure out.

Reacting to the online speculation, he explained: "Oh, is that a thing? Well, whatever it is that it makes one feel. But I think if you listen to the lyrics, you can work out what it's about."

Earlier this month, Harry admitted he wrote 'Sweet Creature' with one specific person in mind.

He said: "I think the best thing about music is everyone can take away different things from stuff and that's not wrong, there's not really a wrong answer. I feel like a lot of my favourite songs that mean something to me, I'd be disappointed if someone told me that they were about something else. It might ruin the song for me.

"'Sweet Creature' is definitely about one person, but I think it's important to remember that there's many different types of things that could be about."