“Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles

Harry Styles seminal offering, “Sign of The Times,” is one of his best musical offerings to date. With pop music elements that pay homage to The Beatles, the song opens up to the sounds of a piano playing a morose slow tempo beat in the key of F major.  This is accompanied by a psychedelic side note reminiscent of 1960’s science fiction flicks and the sound effects that always accompanied a scene of someone being beamed aboard an extraterrestrial vehicle. 

This lends to a feeling of transcendence, an out-of-body experience, in which the beat carries the mind to a greater horizon beyond. The otherworldly beat layered on top of the piano in the background acts as the prelude to Style’s powerful vocals on the song. 

Style’s voice roars in and is soon followed by an explosion of drums, bass, keyboard, and lap steel parts.  The lyrics speak to the inevitable forward progress of time, and its apex in a single human life, death. 

Harry Styles pays homage to The Beatles in “Sign of the Times”
Credit: public domain

They speak to the difficulties people have in accepting a fate we’ll all share. At the same time, the somber elements of the song are balanced with references to an existence beyond the corporeal. The lyrics ask you to accept the inevitability of life and death, while also nodding to the hope of seeing your loved one again.

Just stop your crying it’s a sign of the times…

Have the time of your life
Breaking through the atmosphere
And things are pretty good from here
Remember everything will be alright
We can meet again somewhere
Somewhere far away from here

“Sign of the Times” is a fitting song for a memorial service. The melancholic beat and psychedelic side notes capture both the sadness and pain of losing someone you love. It is a song about loss. And it’s also a song about hope. 

Its airy, celestial vibe stirs memories and nostalgia, while speaking to the power and splendor of life and love. It stirs a sense of comfort and belonging in the face of death, as if you and everyone who had died are strands in fiber of a greater cosmic yolk.