Harry Styles new song 'Sign of the Times' review: Bowie nods aren't enough to move him out of One Direction territory

Of all the former One Route associates, John Styles’ single first appearance has been the most expected since Zayn Malik launched his record MIND OF MINE in 2016.

Premiered on BBC Stereo 1 with his best partner Chip Grimshaw, the monitor opens up to plodding violin notes before Designs opens up on a Bowie-style oral lament.

It becomes easily obvious that while many (this author at least) were trying to be satisfied by something completely more fast-paced, Designs and his team have gone with the standard violin ballad as a way of presenting his single perform.


Co-writers and Styles’ brand have invest recent several weeks wax musical about how different a direction he’s taken since the team divided off for their specific new tasks, but is ‘Sign of the Times’ really that different?

Working with manufacturer Mark Bhaskar [Bruno Mars, Taylor Instant, Moving Stones] recommended that he would look for the best stability of the stone songs he clearly idolises and the pop that rules the air.

“You can’t offer the doorway on the way to the sky/You look very excellent down here/But you ain’t really excellent,” Designs performs, and that's not even the most severe lyric. As in, it's not offensively bad, but it isn't much of a step-up from the insipid lines he peddled as a former boyband participant.

Five moment and 42 a few moments as a operating time seems extremely self-indulgent; showbiz journalist Dan Wooton statements this duration would be ‘commerical suicide’ for any other specialist which seems a fairly repetitive factor to say given how One Route lovers will obviously never allow that to occur - it's basically the only songs with a try at banging Sheeran off his No.1 right the maps.

While there are a lot of nods to companies King, Bowie, and Bruno Mars monitor ‘When I Was Your Man’, he's appropriating those performers rather than getting into his own - the sensation by the end of ‘Sign of the Times’ is that he took in to ‘Life On Mars’ once too often before going into the studio room.

Style’s oral jobs are what redeems this monitor. Changing between a soft, a little bit husky croon to an amazing falsetto, a deficiency of team associates to contest with allows him to display off what was certainly one of the better comments of the team.

But the key good purpose why Malik’s attempt worked well so well is because he split off from the teenager pop and quite sickly ballads that One Route peddled and created a smooth, older pop record that was kilometers apart from anything he’d done before.

Those glamorous stone impacts in the instrument and introduction certainly fit Styles’ character, and this is a far more assured launch than songs launched by his former bandmates (Malik not included). But it’s going to take something greater than this one monitor to say Designs as a serious specialist... whatever his team and his best partner say.