As a diehard One Direction fan, I took Zayn’s departure incredibly hard to handle last year, and exactly a year after shattering my heart into a million pieces, Zayn released his debut solo album, Mind of Mine.
I, naturally, have some thoughts on this.
First, let’s talk about the design. Normally, this wouldn’t matter, but I have a lot of feelings. Why the fake tattoos on baby Zayn? It looks weird. Also, let’s talk about how awful the font design is. I don’t want to see the letters switching between upper and lowercase in the song title. It looks like an angsty teen (who also struggles desperately to spell) typed it up. It’s not a cool look, Zayn. And super frustrating to look at.
Now to reviewing the actual album. It’s good. I like it. It’s a racy, sexual, adult Zayn singing about sex and romance and more sex. He doesn’t hide the fact that he is an adult and can do what he wants and sing about what he wants. And I get it, but that’s also sort of what I have a problem with. It’s just that the entire album is basically all the same. It sort of feels like he’s trying too hard to show that he’s grown up.
His songs are often tinged with a hint of ‘80s and ‘90s R&B and finished off with electronic beats. It’s a style that fits him well. Many of the songs also show of his glorious falsetto, and I’m incredibly thankful for that. And many are slow jams that you can sway too, again, all about sex.
Like Kanye, he seems to have an unnecessary “Intermission,” but you do you, Zayn. At least the acoustic guitar part in that song is good.
“Pillowtalk” will forever be my favorite song off of the album. I could listen to him say “reckless” all day. I also really enjoy “Like I Would.” Another really great song is “Fool For You.” It’s one of the slower, more romantic songs, but it shows off his voice well. Kalani’s duet with Zayn on “Wrong” makes that song one of my favorites, as well.
Overall, the album is ultimately pretty grand. It’s just the common sex thing gets kind of old after a while when the theme and the beats tend to be indistinguishable and just meld together.
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What We Think of Zayn’s Debut Album “Mind of Mine”: Photograph courtesy of RCA Records
