One year after announcing his departure from pop group One Direction, Zayn Malik emerges with his debut solo album. If anything, Zayn is the kind of person you don’t want to be checking up on social media after a breakup because he will let you know that he is already doing better than you.
Hot new slow jam in the form of Pillowtalk? Check.
The same single debuting at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100? Check.
Making out with a supermodel in a sexy, unabashedly passionate music video? Check.
Remember when Zayn used to sing about dancing all night to the best song ever and how he’d love you no matter what you looked like? He’s probably laughing at all that now.
In the upbeat R&B dance track BeFoUr, Zayn throws some serious shade at his past boy band life as he sings: “So pardon if I don’t speak/Can’t tune my chords into your songs, no”.
Mind Of Mine also features a track where Zayn is singing in Urdu, which serves as a thoughtful, heartfelt nod to his Pakistani roots. The slow acoustic Intermission: Flower is a hauntingly beautiful number – it’s a shame that the track is only a minute long.
But the focus is really on Zayn being young and carefree, since he did leave One Direction to concentrate on being a “normal 22-year-old” guy.
dRuNK is another solid slow jam where Zayn breathlessly croons about losing himself in the moment. For those who missed sensitive Zayn, then there’s the synth pop ballad Golden. He flexes his famous falsettos on this track, which could easily fit into One Direction’s catalogue (but don’t ever tell him that).
With Mind Of Mine’s strong offering of tantalising R&B tunes and moody numbers, Zayn boldly wants you to know that he no longer wants to stay in that one direction, and he’s not looking back.
Zayn Malik
Mind Of Mine
(Sony Music)
