Album Review: Zayn Malik’s “Mind of Mine”

Album Review: Zayn Malik’s “Mind of Mine”

Zayn Malik has attempted to break away from his boy band roots and throw himself into the music world as a solo artist with a less teeny-bopper following. As a member of the group One Direction, Malik has traveled the world singing to screaming and adoring young girls everywhere. Citing his desire to live a more normal life, Malik quit the group in March 2015 and ventured into music that would appeal to ladies closer to his age group and to set himself up as a more serious artist. The result was the release of his first studio album, called “Mind of Mine.”

Released by RCA Records and produced by Malay, who was influential in the Frank Ocean Grammy-winning album “Channel Orange,” Zayn Malik’s “Mind of Mine” tries to show us that he is a big boy now. But to me, this album isn’t reflective of the maturity he thinks he has.

The lead single release is the song “Pillowtalk,” and while it’s supposed to be romantic in nature, the words didn’t grab me. Malik does have a good voice, but it’s not a Marvin Gaye “Let’s Get It On” type of appeal to me. First, the background sounds like it came right off the computer mixer. Second, he sings of being in bed with his lady, but the language used (and this could be the old lady in me) just doesn’t make me want to swoon. Maybe I’m being prudish, but hey … I listened to Macklemore with no problem, so you be the judge there.

“Pillow Talk,” “It’s You,” and “Drunk” all sound the same to me. Same tempo, same electronic drum beat, and same synthesized tuning on the vocals. I think he could have used more real instruments in some of the arrangement.

“Fool For You” has a very Sam Smith sound to the vocals, which is nice, and there are more real instruments in the arrangement, and some nice piano. The quality of Malik’s voice comes out. This is how the other songs should have sounded! This one didn’t disappoint.

“Like I Would” picks up the tempo and comes out more like a techno dance number. Again, there are a lot of synthesized back beats, which for this I guess works.

“She” wasn’t too bad either. His voice is clear, and has the mature sound for this type of arrangement. It has a good rhythm ‘n’ blues tone and smooth arrangements until about the middle of the song, when he does the electronic voice echoing. I don’t think it was really needed in the song. His falsetto is nice, but he does seem to use that range a lot in all the songs.

I guess if you are a One Direction follower and you have your heart set on being true to Zayn Malik and his new music, then by all means get this album. If you like real music and don’t really like a lot of electronics in the mix or want real feelings in the sound, you’ll be disappointed. I really do try to be open to most music types, but this one really didn’t appeal to me. If he does keep going, I hope that he finds other songs that will accent that very clean and crisp vocal range he has. Good luck, Zayn!