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May 22, 2024Although it might take the average Zayn fan more than few listens to connect with the LP as a whole, the boldness of the material’s experimentation is worth putting in the effort.
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May 17, 2024It doesn’t arrive without its stumbles. But across these 15 songs, he evokes the feeling that those missteps and the spectators making note of them disappear when he closes his eyes and just sings, entirely unplugged.
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May 17, 2024They’re Zayn’s stories but they’re shared in such an honest, straightforward yet compelling manner that they feel like your own.
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May 17, 2024In taking this stripped-back approach, recognisable across the majority of the record, ZAYN lets his audience in more than ever before.
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May 24, 2024Although a tad overlong and samey after 15 tracks, occasionally drifting into wine bar background music territory, there are some immediate standouts on Room Under The Stairs.
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May 22, 2024Zayn’s fourth is admirable in its emotional mining, is rich in execution and soul, and indeed his brain-scratching melodic riffs will have die-hard fans blushing - but even on this, what we’re told is his ‘most vulnerable’ release, the treading of the long-trodden, stripped-back, ex-boyband desire path leaves the record wanting for just a little more Zayn sparkle.
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May 17, 2024While there are some lyrical clunkers (Concrete Kisses features a line about a “a big old cup of shit”), and the mood can feel one-note, it’s a record that further cements Malik as an intriguing outlier.
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May 17, 2024His voice has never sounded better, but it’s the lyrics that let the album down overall.
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May 22, 2024There’s a moment of startling emotional clarity on “Shoot at Will,” a revealing track where Zayn alludes to his and Hadid’s daughter: “When I look at her, all I see is you/When you look at her, do you see me too?” But for the most part, Zayn appears much more comfortable wearing the mask of vulnerability instead of actually exercising it.