Mind of Mine by Zayn Malik

Mind of Mine is a debut solo album by English singer-songwriter Zayn Malik. Although primarily R&B and alternative R&B, the album blends elements from a wide range of elements including pop, folk, dub, soul, funk, electronic, Qawwali, hip hop, reggae, classical and soft rock. Following Zayn’s five year career with British-Irish band One Direction, due to lack of artistic freedom, he began working on his career shortly after. Due to the band's pop orientated musical direction, Zayn was unable to sing or write the kind of R&B music he had originally been pursuing before joining the band. He mentioned that "If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic" and that "Whenever I would suggest something, it was like it didn’t fit us. There was just a general conception that the management already had of what they want for the band, and I just wasn’t convinced with what we were selling. I wasn’t 100 percent behind the music. It wasn’t me. It was music that was already given to us". On July 29^th 2015 Zayn officially signed to RCA Records and thus Mind of Mine came to life. One interesting thing about Zayn’s album is that the song titles are capitalized erratically. For instance some of the titles of the track are “BoRdErSz”, “lUcOzAde”, and “fOol fOr YoU”. Zayn said that he had done so because the stylized capitalization reflects the way he used to like capitalizing letters when he was at school.

With his album Zayn was trying to communicate, as described with the title of the album, a listen into the ideas of his mind. Concerning the title he said, “It's really reflective of the whole experience that I want to give the listener. I wanted it to be almost like a brainstorm. It’s just music and it’s just whatever you’re feeling at that moment in time.” This album was mostly a showcasing of what Zayn is really about. It was the first thing that defined Zayn as himself rather than one of the five members of a band. With this album he is trying to give everyone a look into his past and the type of music he is interested in. The album was influenced by the music that Malik grew up with, mainly his father's urban music records, including R&B artists R. Kelly, Usher, Donell Jones, and Prince, rappers Tupac and Biggie, and reggae artists Gregory Isaacs and Yellowman, as well as some Bollywood music. The lyrics of the tracks feature themes of lust, sadness, freedom, bliss, love, and frustration. Influenced by his upbringing as a British Pakistani Muslim Zayn’s album also features a song in Urdu which connects him back to his roots.

There are many factors that contribute into my finding this album beautiful. For one, I have always loved Zayn’s vocals. Even from the time he was in One Direction, I found his vocals to be superior and his voice more skillful than his other three band members. Through this album I was able to figure out Zayn’s music and his musical style, composed mainly of R&B, is one that I enjoy. It was also interesting to hear him sing in Urdu because he doesn’t seem very connected to his Pakistani roots. I also enjoyed the overall mood and tone that his album has as a whole. I like how it’s very sparse and random while still maintaining an overall downbeat hazy tone. One of my favorite tracks on the album is lUcOzAde. I like how it is written in a “stream of consciousness” manner with no pauses and an abrupt ending. . The song also lacks a chorus most resembling a continuous flow of thought. It is the track on the album that is most representative of the album’s title, Mind of Mine. Overall, through the album I was able to understand Zayn a bit more and I find it very beautiful when artists are able to express themselves in music rather than putting out generic music that doesn’t give the audience a sense of who the artist is.