Zayn Malik, former member of popular music group One Direction, released his debut album Mind of Mine last month. At first I, and many other people, were skeptical of Zayn venturing out on his own as a solo artist. Fans weren’t used to the image of Zayn separate from One Direction.
However, single “Pillowtalk” gained a lot of popularity and established Zayn as a solo artist. “Pillowtalk” is one of those songs overplayed on the radio and definitely meant to be a “pop” single with catchy, repetitive lyrics and a good beat in the background. It’s a single that, even though you know it’s repetitive and slightly similar to rest of the songs on the radio, you can’t help but turn up when it comes on.
“Pillowtalk” definitely gave Zayn a different image from his One Direction days. One Direction singles like “What Makes You Beautiful” and “Night Changes” are also catchy pop songs just like “Pillowtalk.” But Zayn’s single has a much more mature, edgy sound with heavier beats that are definitely targeted towards an older audience whereas One Direction’s singles had a simpler sound targeted towards a younger audience.
Many of Zayn’s lyricis focus on love and relationships. However, not all of his songs are simply upbeat pop music with meaningless lyrics that some pop singles contain. Songs like “Truth” show more emotion. “Don’t know how many times / I’ve had to say this to you / This ain’t my scene,” he sings. “This wasn’t my dream / It was all yours / All of course / I got caught up in this game,” showing a certain depth to him that wasn’t as visible while he was in One Direction.
It is definitely interesting to see an artist who was once part of a group venturing out on their own. Mind Of Mine may not be the most amazing album out there right now, but it is certainly an album with great songs and has a lot of potential to build Zayn’s career as a solo artist. In my opinion, it’s a good album that differentiates him from One Direction and I have a feeling that Zayn won’t be one of those artists that leave a group and drop off the map. In all honesty, I might even like him better now as a solo artist than I did while he was in One Direction because now, with his individual music, we can understand Zayn more as an artist.
