Harry Styles: A New Era

“Just stop your crying, it’s a sign of the times / Welcome to the final show / Hope you’re wearing your best clothes.” These are the first lines that Harry Styles sings in his solo debut single, “Sign of the Times,” which was released on April 7, 2017. These lyrics hold powerful and passionate emotions—things that the general public may not have expected a member of One Direction to be capable of.

One Direction members Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Harry Styles decided to take a hiatus over a year ago. With promises to come back soon, they have been working on solo projects, and Styles is no exception, having decided to take a different approach to music.

In One Direction, Styles was known as the frontman, singing most of the solos and carrying the chorus. However, he did not write many of the songs and did not have a lot of control over the types of songs he was allowed to sing.

One Direction’s style in their earlier years fits more of a stereotypical boy band, with most of their songs about young love and relationships. Their music style became more mature beginning with their third album, “Midnight Memories,” which contains some rock elements, but was still predominantly pop.

However, Styles’s new type of music has no traces of pop music. He released his solo debut album “Harry Styles,” which features 10 songs, including soft ballads like “Two Ghosts” and hard rock anthems like “Kiwi,” on May 19, 2017. As entertainment journal “Variety” describes his album: “[It’s] rock and it’s roll, but it’s also soft and sensitive.”

When asked about the versatility of his tracks, Styles replied, “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 instead of picking a sound and writing 10 of the same things.”

The self-titled album may have very different songs, but they all have one thing in common: they include Styles pouring out all his feelings.

In one of his slower songs “Meet Me in the Hallway,” he sings, “Just let me know, I’ll be at the door, at the door / Hoping you’ll come around / Just let me know I’ll be on the floor, on the floor / Maybe we’ll work it out / I gotta get better, gotta get better.”

Styles croons about still wanting someone to return, even when he has been hurt by the person before. It has a very pretty and light tone and sounds perfect for a choir to sing. This song has a Pink Floyd vibe to it, especially when compared to the song, “Breathe (In the Air).” Both songs are very sweet-sounding, and both David Gilmour and Harry Styles stretch out the lyrics to make the words sound like echoes.

Another song that stands out from the album is Styles’s debut single “Sign of the Times,” which is commonly described as a bold choice. It’s unusual for a five-minute rock song about dying and the end of a life to debut at number one on the iTunes charts. The song starts off with slow and mellow piano chords, but sharply changes when there is a dramatic drumming to a full-on rock reverie.

Styles doesn’t disappoint with his vocals either. In the last minute of the song, he holds out long notes and hits the high notes with ease as he repeats, “We got to get away, we got to get away,” and “We got to, we got to run” various times. He also uses a falsetto in the pre-chorus, which he sings effortlessly.

“Sign of the Times” definitely has a David Bowie feel to it, made clear with the choir, the guitar sound, the space theme, and the cabaret atmosphere. Bowie is known for his galactic, science fantasy feel to his music; one of his most famous albums, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars,” actually centers around an alien who is also a rock-n-roll superstar. Styles mimics this quality with the use of guitars and drums to set the atmosphere for a space-y rock ballad.

In fact, most of Styles’s album seems to be inspired by the British rock star. His song “Only Angel” begins with a soft and instrumental tune that lasts for a minute until the atmosphere rockets to rock with Styles screaming “HEY! HEY!” This is quite similar to one of Bowie’s most famous songs, “Life On Mars?” with the dramatic change of mood in the song and the use of background singers.

Not all of Styles’s songs on this album are packed full with emotions and poignancy though. In “Kiwi,” he shows that he can have a fun time and let loose when he screams, “Oh, I think she said ‘I’m having your baby, it’s none of your business,’” multiple times. This song is surely a song to blast out from your speakers on a weekend night to displease your parents. It’s very upbeat and energetic, stocked with guitar riffs and intense drumming that will make you want to scream along to Styles.

In Styles’s debut solo album, he breaks out of his shell, both lyrically and musically. The boy-band superstar has matured and is now playing with his limits and exploring new types of music with the help of inspirations like Pink Floyd and David Bowie.