Mind of Mine
Mind of Mine is the first solo studio album by English singer Zayn. It was released on March 25, 2016, through RCA Records, and was released one year after his departure from One Direction. Primarily an R&B and alternative R&B record, the album blends elements from various genres, including pop, folk, dub, soul, funk, electronic, Qawwali, hip hop, reggae, classical and soft rock. Upon release, it was met with generally positive reviews, with praise for Malik's new musical direction and his vocal performance.
Mind of Mine spawned three singles: lead single "Pillowtalk" debuted at number one in twelve countries including the UK and the US. "Like I Would", was released as the next single to moderate success, while "Wrong", featuring Kehlani, was released as the final single. Kehlani is the only feature on the album. Mind of Mine debuted at number one in several countries including the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden, with Malik becoming the first British male artist to debut at number one in both the UK and US with a debut single and debut studio album.
Background
Following Zayn Malik's five-year stint with English-Irish band One Direction, he quit the band after signing off from the band's On the Road Again Tour for an indefinite period six days prior due to stress. Shortly after, Malik began working on solo material. After sessions with various producers, Malik eventually went on to meet James "Malay" Ho, who would become his debut album's main collaborator. On 29 July 2015, Malik shared a photo on social media of his official signing with RCA Records. Throughout the rest of 2015, Malik gave interviews with several music magazines, during which he spoke about his debut solo studio album and revealed part of the track list. He stated "life experiences have been the influences for the album and just stuff that I've been through, especially in the last five years". Furthermore, he explained his reasons for leaving One Direction: "there was never any room for me to experiment creatively in the band." Malik originally auditioned to be a solo R&B singer with Mario's "Let Me Love You" in 2010 before becoming part of One Direction, but with the band headed in a pop rock direction.Due to the band's musical direction, Malik was unable to sing or write the kind of R&B music he had originally pursued before joining the band. He elaborated, "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". He told Complex that "It was about denying the authenticity of who I was, and what I enjoyed about music, and why I got into it."
Despite his comments regarding One Direction, he told Ryan Seacrest that he is "massively grateful for that, and if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be here," adding that "It’s not because I’m trying to be more successful or as successful as what was going on before, because there’s no comparison." He told The Fader that "it wasn’t actually about anymore" but "It was more about the people that I reach. I want to reach them in the right way, and I want them to believe what I’m saying." He added, "I just want to make music now." The cover art, which features a child version of Zayn with tattoos, has been criticized for almost plagiarizing Lil Wayne's Tha Carter album series. Lil Wayne was later featured on the remix of Zayn's song "Pillowtalk".
Conception and influence
In March 2015, Malik was seen at a London recording studio with producer Naughty Boy, leading to speculation of the pair working on music together. Following his departure from One Direction, Malik alluded to the potential of a solo career, with the release of his first solo studio album to be released under the Syco label in 2016. On 31 March 2015, Naughty Boy released on SoundCloud an early demo of Malik's song "I Won't Mind". In June 2015, UK rapper Mic Righteous leaked Malik's "No Type", featuring Mic Righteous and produced by Naughty Boy, a cover version of Rae Sremmurd's hip hop song. With Naughty Boy as his producer, Malik also worked with grime rappers Krept & Konan during this time, recording a song together with an unfinished music video, but the material was never released after Malik parted ways with Naughty Boy. Though unreleased, his work with Naughty Boy and Krept & Konan helped Malik gain a new urban audience in the UK.He stated musically the record leans towards R&B, and described his album as "weird, alternative R&B", stating that "It's all very sparse and random," and "They're all kind of different thoughts. The music reflects that as well because they're different emotions, so you feel different things through each song." He also said it would incorporate different genres of music, such as soul, reggae, and an R&B-rock fusion, stating that "all the songs are different genres," and that they "don't really fit a specific type of music. They're not like, 'This is funk, this is soul, this is upbeat, this is a dance tune.' Nothing is like that. I don't really know what my style is yet. I'm kind of just showing what my influences are. Depending on what the reaction is, then I'll go somewhere with that."
The album was influenced by the music that Malik grew up with, primarily 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 Bollywood music. He cited rapper Tupac's All Eyez on Me as the album that had the biggest impact on him, stating that it is "so real, and from a perspective of a place where somebody is not afraid to be completely 100 percent honest." He said, "as I grew up, it really helped me to understand that it’s OK to be honest with your art, because people appreciate that." In an interview with NME, Malik explained the album's title: "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."
Writing and recording
Teasing what could be expected of his first solo LP, Malik told Billboard: "once they hear it, I feel like they will understand me a little bit more. For 10 years, this album has been in my brain, and it's just been there, sat with me, needing to be out." Talking about the recording sessions with Billboard, Malik's main collaborator for the album James "Malay" Ho said they have gone to unusual lengths in pursuit of inspiration, for one "we went camping for a week in the Angeles Forest – set up a generator and a tent so we could track in the woods." James Ho is a Grammy Award winning producer, whose past work includes Frank Ocean's Channel Orange and Big Boi's Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty. "I'll come down here and record maybe seven songs a night," Malik told the magazine. "I’m enjoying what I’m doing. I’m not censoring myself anymore."Ho described Malik as "pure genius" and noted that most of the vocals were recorded in just a few takes. According to Ho, Malik was heavily involved in every aspect of recording, stating that, "Even if there were co-writers involved, all the direction for the songs and all the lyrics and everything pretty much came from him". The song titles are rendered in a stylised manner, reminiscent of Prince. Malik said the stylized capitalization reflects the way he used to like capitalizing letters when he was at school. Malik said that, after his debut album releases, he plans to pursue an academic degree in English or literature, while at the same time working on writing his next album. Malik said that "Pillowtalk" was written about sex, stating that "everybody has sex, and it’s something people wanna hear about. It’s part of everybody’s life, a very big part of life. And you don’t want to sweep it under the carpet." "It's You" was inspired by the breakup of a relationship, with Malik stating, "It was a form of therapy for me, and it did help me get through" some personal issues, while he was writing it.
According to Ho, "Befour" was conceived when he and Malik were in the VIP area of a Las Vegas club where Big Sean was performing in August 2015, and Malik said, "It's crazy being here in Vegas. I’ve literally been all over the world with One Direction. I’ve done this before, but not like this. Not by myself, not this way, not here with the intention of working on my own music".
The Qawwali Urdu song "Flower" was inspired by Malik's upbringing as a British Pakistani Muslim. Referencing the recording, Ho stated that Malik "knows how to sing like that and he’s always been able to do it, but he just never took it that seriously" until one day he "just picked up the mic and tracked that whole thing basically live, in one take." Ho said he "was just blown away" and "didn’t know he could sing like that," and that "he told me he was in a super spiritual place, and that the saying is something one of his family members had told him that had always stuck to him." Ho said the session was like jazz "where a singer will have a concept or a melody and then the rest of it is just improv." Malik sung and wrote one of the songs, "Wrong", in collaboration with American R&B singer and songwriter Kehlani. According to Malik, he "reached out to her, played a couple of songs for her in L.A. and she's really cool, she liked the music, so she got in the studio within a couple of days, she gave me a song back that she wanted me to do, and we just got it done straight away." Malik originally wrote "Wrong" as a rap, which he then used to create lyrics for the song. "Fool for You" is a pop ballad inspired by The Beatles, particularly John Lennon, citing the songs "In My Life" and the Indian-influenced "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Malik sang "Lucozade" in a freestyle manner and recorded the song in one take.