Harry’s new direction

Harry Styles, the soon-to-be-released first solo album by the One Direction star Harry Styles, is set for worldwide release on May 17 this year. It is made up of the following songs. Meet Me In The Hallway, Carolina, Two Ghosts, Sweet Creature, Only Angel, Kiwi, Ever Since New York, Woman and From The Dining Table. The first single out is Sign Of The Times and it is fantastic. There is no question that the solo career of Harry is off to a great start.

Harry was a member of the British group One Direction along with Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik. Created by Simon Cowell out of The X-Factor contestants, they had five No. 1 selling albums and a series of sold-out concerts all over the world. For four years, the boys held teenaged girls and sometimes also parents and boys enthralled with their looks and their music. They were hailed as one of the most successful boy bands in pop music history.

Then in a surprise move, Zayn left One Direction to go solo in 2015. He hit it big right from the get-go with the single Pillowtalk and is now considered a major pop star. The remaining four guys soldiered on and their popularity showed no sign of waning. The album Made In The A.M. sans Zayn made No. 1 and their subsequent concert tour played to packed arenas everywhere. But then the seed of unrest had been planted and in 2016, One Direction was declared to be in hiatus. It was not really disbanded so fans can still look forward to reunions, but the members were set free to pursue individual projects. They next all signed recording contracts as soloists and began work on their albums. 

Harry and his self-titled effort is the first at bat. Truth to tell, he was the 1D boy everybody believed would make good as a soloist from the beginning. He had the looks, could write songs, had soulful vocals and a natural rock star sensibility. Harry could charm anybody, including Taylor Swift. The only question then, was when he would go solo. But then Zayn beat him to it and although he could have left right after, it was nice of Harry to decide to stay on with One Direction for one more year.

He is now making his bid with Sign Of The Times. The song is a total surprise. It is a soft rock ballad that Harry performs most of the time with a passionate falsetto. Backed by a piano, he comes across as a crooning rocker not unlike Prince or Pink Floyd or our recent visitors Coldplay. What a relief to find out that he junked hip-hop for this first single. It is not anchored on a repetitive beat. You can also double that relief because there is also not a hint of EDM in the recording. What we have from a One Direction is an honest-to-goodness song with a melody and lyrics. And Harry sings it beautifully.

Now I do not know yet what the complete Harry Styles album sounds like. I still have to listen to it come May. For all I know, it can be epic hip-hop or EDM. But it still feels so good to come across a real song like Sign Of The Times at a time when it seems like all the music we hear is a drum machine going thump, thump thump. The rock ballad of the big kind has returned and it is Harry who brought it back.

Here now is an update on what the rest of the One Direction guys are doing:

Niall Horan. Still waiting for the follow-up to the single This Town that he released last year.

Liam Payne. Also no word yet about the first solo recording of the sexiest 1D. Instead what we have is the announcement about the birth of his daughter with twice-divorced pop star Cheryl Cole.

Louis Tomlinson. His first release, Just Hold On with Steve Aoki, did very well but there is still no sign of a follow-up.

Zayn Malik. He is now getting ready to drop a new single, Still Got Time with Party Next Door.

And more about Harry. He is one of the stars of the World War II movie Dunkirk with Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and others.