Mind of Mine

Mind of Mine leaps right over anything on Justified and carves a path of its own. Next decade’s boybands will doubtless provoke discussion on which of them will break out like this, which one will be a Zayn.

Zayn has clearly achieved his aim of making an album of sexy, credible pop-R&B.

Soulful, sexy and captivating, Mind Of Mine hints at the flexibility, focus and character required of the brightest solo stars.

His vocals are by far the album’s most potent aspect, bringing grace and wonder even to the more routine material, and hoisting the better songs to classic status.

That the sound he’s chosen--clipped beats, hazy production flourishes, oodles of falsetto as a shortcut for emotional honesty--is basically 2016 writ large may seem bandwagon-jumping, but there’s more than enough good stuff here to suggest it’s been created with love rather than with an eye on ticking boxes.

His vocal skills help pave over the (rare) moments when the lyrics seem a bit juvenile or the sound feels a little too familiar, and help make Mind of Mine an impressive debut. It's music he couldn't have made with One Direction and while it may not be breaking any new ground, it's new for him and he's talented enough to make that interesting for anyone who likes well-made pop music.

A moody, deeply textured R&B album with vibe to spare, Mind of Mine sounds as if it was designed to showcase the effort and inspiration that went into it.... With 18 tracks on the deluxe edition, the album can wear you down with all its finely wrought sophistication, even when Zayn is singing about taking your clothes off.

Mind Of Mine is a better whole than a collection of songs, and the standouts tend to be the shorter, less unambitious ditties (the theatrical “It’s You”; the gut-punch party jam “She”).

Throughout this album, Mr. Malik opts for a low-octane approach, with varying success.

It’s not a step forward, really, it’s a step to the side. There are still hints of the pop star Zayn was drowning out the RnB icon he wants to become.

As debut offerings often go, there’s a fervent desire on Mind of Mine to stretch so far and wide that the cohesiveness of the record is lumbered as a result. The tracklist could have been refined to ten good tracks (most of which are on the bonus edition).

His songs get to where they need to go, but they’re lacking in narrative, specificity... purpose, if you will.

Mind Of Mine is an impressive enough debut, with excellent, laidback production and assured vocals. It's lyrically stunted, it's too long, and the overall sound is not starkly original, but the subtle elements of South Asian sounds set a promising tone of fusion.

For all its inevitable ubiquity, this downbeat, low-lit album has the bonus of not being in your face at all.

In some ways, it works; the songs on Mind of Mine certainly skew towards more mature content and a sleeker, less bubblegum-y pop sound that's implemented expertly by producer Malay on silky smooth PBR&B-lite ballads like "It's You." It works less well on cuts like Kehlani collaboration "Wrong," which is gratingly heavy-handed with the Auto Tune--a problem that again rears its whiny head on "Fool for You."

He stumbles with tepid ballads like "It's You" and "Blue," but the record is saved by its more experimental moments--specifically, the warm, neo-soul track "Truth" and hypnotic Persian-infused intermission "Flower."

Lacking compelling hooks, a unifying mood, or a clear narrative, his debut is oddly inflexible and over-calculated.

His aim to dive fully into a nuanced direction is a good look, and even though it can be too much at times, his earnestness is a natural antidote to the sleazy misanthropic attitudes of Bieber or The Weeknd. There’s just not enough focus, and promise can only take one so far without differentiation from the artists you’re emulating.

Zayn sounds tentative when he’s venturing into lyrical territory beyond his former band’s purview, which compromises the album’s clearly wide-ranging aims.