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| "Sign of the Times" | ||||||||
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| Single by Harry Styles | ||||||||
| from the album Harry Styles | ||||||||
| Released | 7 April 2017 | |||||||
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| Length | 5:40 | |||||||
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"Sign of the Times" is the debut solo single by English singer and songwriter Harry Styles for his self-titled debut studio album. It is Styles' first single outside of the boy band One Direction. Released on 7 April 2017, by Erskine and Columbia Records, it was written by Styles, Ryan Nasci, Mitch Rowland and its producers Jeff Bhasker, Tyler Johnson, and Alex Salibian.[1]
Contents
[show]Background and release[edit]
Early rumours about Styles going on a solo career sparkled in 2015, when it was reported that Sony Music wanted Styles to release a solo album during One Direction's hiatus.[5] By the end of 2015, four new songs written and performed by Styles were registered on the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) online database, which was believed to be for his potential debut solo album at the time.[6] Shortly after, Styles signed up with American agent Jeffrey Azoff and moved to Columbia Records.[7]In September 2016, Styles was in the cover of Another Magazine, which led the media to expect a new album in the future.[7]
In February 2017, chairman and CEO of Columbia Records, Rob Stringer, admitted that the album was close to finish and called it "authentic".[8] A month later, it was reported that the album sounded like David Bowie and Queen, while also being revealed that he worked on the album with only one producer, Jeff Bhasker. It was also hinted that the lead single would be released in late April or early May and it sounded "like it would be a smash in any decade."[9] In the same month, US radio host Elvis Duran revealed during his show that Styles' debut single would be released on 7 April 2017.[10] On 27 March 2017, Styles teased the new single revealing that it would be called "Sign of the Times" with a television ad.[11] On 7 April 2017, the single premiered during Nick Grimshaw's breakfast show on BBC Radio 1.[11]
Composition[edit]
The song is a pop rock,[1] soft rock, piano ballad.[12] According to a Billboard writer, it "folds in psychedelic soul, indie rock and spacey pop."[13] The power ballad shows influences from British rock from the early 1970s.[14] In an interview with Rolling Stone Styles stated, "The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there's a complication. The mother is told, 'The child is fine, but you're not going to make it.' The mother has five minutes to tell the child, 'Go forth and conquer.'"[15]
According to the song credits provided by Styles' label, the track was co-written by the song's producer, Jeff Bhasker, as well as his frequent collaborators and track co-producers Alex Salibian and Tyler Johnson. Songwriters also include Mitch Rowland, Ryan Nasci and Styles himself. The track was recorded at Village Studios in Los Angeles and Geejam Hotel Recording Studio in Port Antonio, Jamaica. The song was mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent.[16]
Music video[edit]
The music video, directed by Woodkid, was released on 8 May.[17] It features Styles singing in a meadow, and soaring in the skies, walking on water. It was described to be Styles "auditioning to be Marvel Comics next superhero or in a new biblical epic". It was filmed on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.[18] The video's stunt pilot, Will Banks, stated that Styles flew more than 1,550 feet high during the shoot. Banks also claimed that no green screen or CGI effects were employed during filming. However this was later found to be inaccurate as green screen was clearly used in many sweeping shots.[19] A stunt double was used for some scenes.[20]
Critical reception[edit]
Tim Jonze of The Guardian described it as "a ballad, but not so much in the boyband style" and compared the song to the music of American indie rock band The Walkmen.[21]Jonze also addressed early rumors that the song would be influenced by the music of David Bowie, noting "If it is indeed Bowie-esque, then it’s the Bowie of Hunky Dory".[21]
Writing for Rolling Stone, Brittany Spanos thought it "aligns much more with the Seventies-inspired pop-rock of One Direction's more recent albums like Made in the A.M.".[22]
In The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber wrote the song "continues with One Direction's po-mo project of recycling classic-rock sounds as bubblegum. But he’s now embracing such sounds with more abandon, less chirpiness, some trend bucking, and the kind of uplifting lyrics that nod to planetary anxiety." Kornhaber described the song opens with ballad piano, "encroaching" violins, and Styles "crooning in pain", "but then there’s the bwang of a guitar and the song rockets into an arena-rock reverie that feels so, so familiar to anyone who remembers the '90s but also so, so foreign to today’s landscape."[23]
Billboard's Gil Kaufman wrote, "Every artist is an accumulation of their influences, and in [this song] they come fast and furious, as Styles appears to be both showing his range and making a clear effort to step boldly away from the manufactured, plastic pop of his past." Kaufman opined it "rakes in influences from Pink Floyd and David Bowie to Spacehog, Suede, Coldplay, The Beatles, Eric Carmen and Prince."[13] Also for Billboard, Jason Lipshutz wrote it is "resolute, determined, wholly committed to its messaging and sound, radio trends be damned. Although it wears its influences on its sleeve (Bowie) nothing about this single bends toward someone else’s expectations." He concluded saying the song "sounds effortless, but to arrive without any incomplete features is an accomplishment in a music industry where pop artists are expected to produce new music at an unsustainable rate."[24]
In The Telegraph, Alice Vincent described it as a "swooning piano ballad with somewhat overdone production" and opined, "it is also... a little boring. A big, blousy singalong which shows off Styles's vocal prowess – especially with an unexpected, slightly yelping falsetto bridge – but isn't enormously fun."[12] Since it was released on the 30th anniversary of Prince's Sign o' the Times, Spin's Andy Cush commented, "it’s clear that this is Styles’s attempt to distinguish himself as an artist with real depth. But the music itself has almost nothing to do with Prince–instead, think Oasis, Elton John at his most bombastic, '70s John Lennon." Cush noted it "has only those three chords, and it goes straight for cruising altitude with an onslaught of cymbals and guitar on the first chorus, expecting you to be moved without pausing to consider why."[25]
Chart performance[edit]
"Sign of the Times" reached number one on the UK Singles Chart with a combined sales of 62,900 units.[26] In its first week, it sold 39,000 downloads together with 3.5 million streams that give 23,472 equivalent units, pausing Ed Sheeran's run of 13 weeks at the top of the chart with "Shape of You".[27]
In the United States, the song debuted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. In its first week, it sold 142,000 copies (topping Digital Songs), earned 16.5 million streams and 23 million airplay impressions.[28]
Live performances[edit]
Styles performed the song on the 15 April 2017 episode of Saturday Night Live's 42nd season.[29] On 21 April, Styles appeared on the BBC's The Graham Norton Show, for his first solo performance in his native UK.[30]
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