Zayn Malik was the first of One Direction to leave, and now, he’s the first of One Direction to release a solo single and it’s amazing! I can’t believe I’m saying that.
In the intro of the song, “Pillowtalk”, I thought he was going to copy Justin Bieber’s sound and burst out into a dance track, but even though you can hear some influence there, the song is a full blown power ballad.
The artsy video definitely ends his boyband days and shows a mature side of the artist Zayn, as he dropped his last name for his own work.
Still, I think there’s enough pop left in there to keep his 1D fans interested.
It was expected that Zayn would release R&B music from now on, and the influence is absolutely there, but I’m still glad he made a combo of genres instead. It reminds me of a lot of things – One Republic for instance - but all good tracks and all complimentary.
I feel a bit like the Kurrent Music blogger, who posted “I can’t believe I like a One Direction song”, but I’m actually surprised with this release. There’s something about this, where you don’t really want to admit it, but hey, I’m a fair person and can’t deny I’ve already listened to this track 5 times, while writing this, because I’m simply loving it.
Zayn didn’t choose a completely safe song, but did seek out something with a minimum risk to it. He managed to introduce a new him by combining what’s out there, in the charts, already with a more mature pop sound from One Direction.
It's almost like this song is the most logical step. I think it’s enough for people to start taking notice to him in a different light, but time would have to show whether he’s the next Robbie Williams, who went on to have a very successful solo career, in a completely different genre, than when he was a member of boyband Take That.
I guess you could say, it’s a good start.
