On Zayn Malik’s (now ZAYN) first solo effort Mind of Mine, the performer forges the entirety of the album’s personality on leaving childhood behind.
The former One Direction star now drinks, grows a beard, bleaches his hair and has sex — the last of which the album hangs its hat on.
Mind of Mine is produced by James “Malay” Ho, a longtime Frank Ocean and John Legend collaborator. This is the most conspicuous signal that the album is R&B-based and not a mere flirtation with the ’80s that One Direction’s exploits resembled. It is a risky decision, but evidently intentional. Zayn wants to be perceived as a bad boy worthy of Directioners’ fantasies.
This decision pays off, sometimes. “PILLOWTALK” slickly introduces his departure from bubblegum rock. The song is driven by a subtle beat and possesses a captivating melody. The lyrics are sensual yet eloquent, most notably when he depicts a sex-filled day in bed as being simultaneously pure and raw.
Vocals are Zayn’s strong suit on most tracks. The album’s overarching sound conjures images of a cigarette-wielding Zayn coolly recording whole songs in one take. He possesses a faultless vibrato and commands as much control over his famous falsetto (listen to “BeFoUr” for falsetto-induced happiness) as he does over lower registers. This vocal brilliance salvages many songs that would otherwise resemble discarded Justin Timberlake demos, with their thumping beats and falsetto-fillings.
On “iT’s YoU,” he is uncharacteristically bitter about a past relationship, singing about his inability to face his ex’s deceptions. Defensive guilt prevails on “SHE DON’T LOVE ME,” where he croons about his infidelity being caused by his girlfriend’s paucity of love.
The honesty and gravitas of these lyrics are startling, as they are a world away from the cheerfulness of unrequited love that One Direction brought, further establishing Zayn as a grown up.
Even seductive rhymes, however, can’t rescue some missteps. “dRuNk” regales late nights and red eyes while “lUcOzAdE” portrays him “blazing on that new found haze.” Zayn is trying too hard to “make music that [he] thinks is cool shit,” as he said was his intent an interview with Fader.
He sings incessantly about drunken misadventures and sexual conquests, almost as if he believes the adulthood he seems to be grasping for comprises solely of those two experiences.
He even messes around when stylizing song titles (case in point being dRuNk or wRoNg), breaking free of grammatical rules in the same way that he’s trying to break free of childhood rules.
He does manage to be a successful seducer at times. “wRoNg,” featuring Kehlani, is, simply put, hot. They sing, “She likes when I’m messy / And I like when she’s undressing.” Kehlani’s voice blends with Zayn’s to create subtle seductiveness, like a chess match between two lovers. Likewise, “TiO” is risqué and has a sexual swagger.
As an entity, however, the album is a pastiche of its contemporaries. Zayn foregoes originality to celebrate artists like The Weeknd and Frank Ocean. The music forms a sex-fueled odyssey and listeners beg for Zayn to renounce his devil-may-care demeanor.
He does this, fleetingly, on “INTERMISSION: fLoWer,” where he sings tenderly in Urdu, about “the flower of love blossoming.” This experimentation is, unfortunately, a rare commodity.
On “PILLOWTALK,” Zayn proclaims, conflictingly, “It’s a paradise and it’s a warzone.” Musical introspection and a desire to enter his perception of adulthood conflict similarly throughout the album. This furthers the notion Zayn will have to clear the smoke-induced haze surrounding him if he is ever to find his own artistic niche.
