With a dramatic 2015 departure from One Direction and the release of his stellar contemplative debut album “Mind of Mine” in the same year, few artists have made a name for themselves so early in their careers in the way that Zayn Malik did. Unfortunately, since “Mind of Mine,” Malik has twice failed to prove 2015 was not a fluke: first with “Icarus Falls” (2018), which felt more like background music than a 29-track feature album, and again with his latest release on Jan. 15, “Nobody is Listening.” From its monotonous tracks to its unoriginal lyrics and melodies, “Nobody is Listening” feels like a half-hearted attempt to emulate the introspection of “Mind of Mine” rather than something into which Malik channeled his passion for making music.
The 11-track album opens with “Calamity,” aptly named due to its disjointed nature, which foreshadows what’s to come in the remaining 10 songs. The track sounds more like beat poetry in a smoky bar than an intro to an album, and any message that Malik might be trying to convey is lost in his accent, the jazzy backing melody and childish rhyming disguised as a flow. It somehow feels busy and confused despite the relative simplicity of the track itself.
From there, we get track after track of seemingly the same song. Getting lost in the sound of Malik’s soulful and velvety voice makes for a much more pleasant listening experience than trying to derive meaning from the songs’ simple lyrics or straining to hear what he’s saying through his silky voice and thick accent. It often feels like Zayn flips a switch as he ebbs and flows between heavy, electronic influence in some tracks and super acoustic, basic instrumentation in others.
The songs that constitute the middle of “Nobody is Listening” all blend into each other, as Malik offers little, either vocally or lyrically, to make any track stand out from the others. The only notable aspects of the songs are their altered spellings (see “Connexion” and “Unfuckwitable”). The album’s features, Syd and Devlin, add nothing to their respective appearances, proving to be unmemorable. An otherwise lackluster album takes a welcome turn with “Tightrope,” a track that samples old Bollywood music to pair his already dreamlike voice with a floating, playful melody. It feels much more intimate than any other track and has a much catchier hook — “are you ready, because I’m ready to let go” — than anything else Malik has done. It’s a shame he waits until the 10th track to provide anything remotely playable.
The album’s final song, “River Road,” is a lullaby that places more emphasis on Malik’s sheer vocal richness than on the song’s lyrics or instrumentation. The ending feels incomplete, as if Malik forgot to throw in a track that might have returned him to greatness. Listeners are left unsatisfied, yearning for the wider variation of melodies, instruments and lyrical complexity that Malik has proved himself capable of producing in the past.
Ultimately, “Nobody is Listening” is more a handful of demo tracks than a complete album and gives the impression that Malik threw in the towel before it was complete. Underwhelming and more like “Icarus Falls” than “Mind of Mine,” perhaps Malik had the title of the album in mind before he put it out: if nobody is listening, it must not matter how cohesive the album turns out.
Chief of Digital Operations | cchinn@emory.edu
Cailen Chinn (22C) is from Boulder, Colorado and double majoring in film & media management and French. Aside from being the Wheel's jack-of-all-trades, she is a member of Emory's varsity swim team. She prides herself in her taste in music and her coffee addiction (which she documents on her Instagram account, @cailendrinkscoffee).
This is unbelievably disrespectful to not only Zayn’s music but to him personally. This is absolutely horrible. Zayn is just as, if not more, hardworking as any other musician out there. He worked extremely hard on this album and released it when HE KNEW it was ready. This album, nor any of his other music, is half-hearted. He absolutely did NOT “fall short” with it. This is probably the most disrespectful article I’ve ever seen towards an artist as wonderful as Zayn. He poured his heart and soul into this album and all you have to point out is anything you can find wrong with it. I’ve got to say, you’re very brave publishing this. You’re about to get a lot of back-lash. I honestly have no words for this. It’s just horrible. Zayn is an amazing artist and you are one of the very few people that had anything bad to say about his album. This is so disrespectful and rude. There was no need for any of this. You have no right to go and tell people they shouldn’t listen to his album. Let people form their own opinions because you clearly didn’t understand what this album was meant to be about. He basically put everything in his head on display for the world and you are bashing it. Absolutely horrible.
okay cailen, it’s not like your opinion is relevant to him anyways. but it does hurt zayns loyal fans who appreciate him more than anyone will appreciate you. see, zayn is a talented artist who came out of the biggest boy band, he struggled with mental health problems for a while, and i’m very sure he still does. so please, keep your trashy opinions to yourself because this album (and all of them) are way better than you could ever do. thanks love. don’t make articles that aren’t nice. tpwk <3
Hello Mrs Cailen Chinn! I would just like to say, this article is irrelevant in all ways. Nobody Is Listening is true art, also better than you could ever do! Zayn Malik is a very talented singer and musical artist that takes time to make his wonderful fans music for a living. Zayn also as you said was in the boy band One Direction, which was possible one of the biggest boy bands in the world. So really, you shouldn’t be making these articles in the first place, because the whole album is written by a lyrical genius who knows much more about music than you!
His song ‘Calamity’ is a great song, you don’t have to agree (we all have opinions) but keep the comments to yourself. All the songs are great. All of them well written and produced. The rhythm, the flow, everything about it is purely amazing.
Also, you said in your profile that you “pride yourself in music taste” but clearly not if you can’t except the fact Mr. Malik makes great music. Let the man live. He’s 28 years old who loves minions, cool fonts and video games. He’s fragile. And by posting this article, I do hope you expect a bunch of his wonderful fans to come at you for writing it in the first place. Zayn Malik will always be 1000x more powerful than you’ll ever be. x
Treat People With Kindness!
Sincerely,
Allie
Hi Mrs. Chinn, it’s me, Allie. I’m back to say some more due to some other things i’ve seen.
Okay, you said “Listeners are left unsatisfied” hm, quite strange because I don’t recall ever seeing anything bad about it up until… now. I’m pretty damn satisfied for being one of his fans too.
Secondly, you said “Dramatic departure from One Direction” well, of course it’s going to be dramatic. Like I said before, One Direction was one of the biggest boy bands to be formed, and Zayn helped shape and form it. Everyone was left devastated when he left because we all love Zayn, and was concerned for him because of all the backlash he got from it. Really, without Zayn, there wouldn’t be a One Direction. And it kind of showed after when the other four parted ways in 2015. But the others, (Harry, Louis, Liam and Niall) were also dealing with personal mental health battles. That really shows how toxic the industry is.
Nobody Is Listening shows how there can be different types of music too. Zayn stands out with his incredible vocals and different types of high notes. You can’t just disrespect an artist who made his way to the top well battling ED’s, health problems, depression and anxiety and now he also has a beautiful daughter to raise on top of music. On top of what Zayn battled back then, he was young. And he had to deal with toxic management at a dramatically young age. But look at him now. A huge celebrity doing what he loves. He’s somewhat happy ever since he settled down with Gigi Hadid.
Don’t even think of bashing Mind of Mine, because that album shows his talents. Same with Icarus Falls. Zayn doesn’t deserve the hate after all he’s done for his fans. He makes us very happy. And he shows him true self through music.
Thanks Cailen again for this very poor article. It gave me a chance to express how much I care for Mr Malik.
Treat People With Kindness!
Sincerely,
Allie
Again, everyone has opinions and they all matter in some way. Yours? Well yours is just, wrong. Zayn is a very talented man. In many ways. And everything shows.
😉
-Allie, TPWK
This is so disrespectful towards Zayn. Now that you have given your opinion I am going to give mine which is, that I love this album. His voice is incredible and so pure. I love how he opened up to all of us and has showed us what he can make. This may be one of the best albums of his so far. I get that everyone has different taste in music, but what you wrote really is inappropriate. If you hate it so much than just don’t listen to his album and let the people who are enjoying his music listen to it in peace. Zayn has had an difficult few years and put out something beautiful. Let him be, and spend your time on something else nobody asked for your opinion.
I hope you all know that saying keep your opinions to yourself while giving your opinion and wishing hate on a person is counter productive.. lol
If you are racist you can just say that.
he would dedicate the song “unfuckwitable” to you with pleasure 🙂
Should we cancel her?
This is disrespectful. Articles should be based on facts and not about opinions, especially when it’s not even the majority’s opinion. I don’t want to hate on no one, everyone makes mistakes! Especially in the beginning of their career, but the best for you would probably to just delete this. Also, talking bad about his accent? His accent? Do you think it looks good when an author is desperately searching for problems when there are none? Thought so. His accent is not the problem, nothing is the problem. It’s just not your taste in music which is totally alright, but don’t release articles bashing a musician just because you don’t like them? There are many topics you could write about.. what about „minding your own business“? Also „ From its monotonous tracks to its unoriginal lyrics and melodies, “Nobody is Listening” feels like a half-hearted attempt to emulate the introspection of “Mind of Mine” rather than something into which Malik channeled his passion for making music. “ What? Don’t talk about his passions. You don’t know if he was passionate about this album, or did he tell you? Why are the lyrics and the melody unoriginal? Stop bashing him, he is so talented and I actually don’t need to prove it to you, but let me give you a few examples; He was in the biggest boyband ever and stuck out with his incredible voice and has multiple songs with over 1.000.000.000 streams on Spotify and views on YouTube. His songs are played on every radiostation all over the world! If you don’t like his new album, fine. But don’t try to project your opinion on other people. Let your opinion be yours but don’t put it out if it isn’t helpful. Greetings from Germany! Tpwk xx. Don’t take this personally, just want to help you out in your career since you seem to care more about other peoples career!
Not surprised by her comments on his accent coming from a member of Emory’s fellowship of Christian athletes. Obviously racist.
This is the most disrespectful article I have ever read in my entire life. Shame on the person who wrote this Bullshit. Just because it’s not your music taste that doesn’t mean that it is bad music. It’s his own style and it’s a beautiful album. So stop making it down just because you don’t like it and think that it doesn’t sound good. I would never write hate under anything but this article is literal shit. Poor Zayn. Stop making such disrespectful articles and start to treat people with kindness (:
Wow. Just wow. This is probably the most disgusting thing I have read in my life. Your amazing taste in music really seems to have failed. You don’t know how many people he saved, one including me, with his music. I completely understand that not everybody has to like him but pushing someone down like this is just not right going to do. I don’t know why you made this or the purpose of the article but this is just plain rude. This should be taken down immediately.
The fact that you can’t understand his music and words he tries to convey in his beautiful songs is just sad. I feel bad for you. Damn you really had the audacity to bring my man down like that, I mean the rest of the gang have said it all in the comments above but seriously I’m concerned on what’s going on the inside of your head 😃. Girl you have just embarrassed yourself and you’ve messed with the wrong fandom. We are not afraid to tear you down and will report you if you do not take this ARTICAL down immediately. We do support twpk so we’ll say please. PLEASE TAKE THIS ARTICAL DOWN RIGHT NOW.
Whomever approved to have you working on this job needs to be fired with you, I have never read such a disrespectful nonchalantly made review written by the most tasteless reviewer alive!
Anyone recording music for public listening is considered an “artist”. As in ALL art, it is subjective to the viewer or listener in this case. Zayn is talented, no question. Is all his music fabulous? No, not any more than the work of other artists. Some paintings, books, songs, lyrics, melodies, sculptures, etc aren’t always “great”. Rushing to prove yourself without really identifying your “voice” can be unsatisfactory to the artist as well as the audience. He is surely still trying to find his exact “groove”. He deserves to find that. What he does need to be mindful of is the audience that will WANT to find the time to listen to it, and find a commonality that keeps them coming back for more. If all he ever sings about is having sex with his girlfriend, he’s going to lose more listeners for the long haul than he keeps. Maybe if he stepped away from his own pain or whatever seems to initiate his lyrics, and see a bigger picture (too much internal focusing IMO), more people would LOVE what he does. I don’t want to spend an hour or more just listening to him brag or complain about his sex life.
This album is stellar! One of his best. Beautiful listening experience…. that is, if you know how to listen.
This album is stellar! One of his best. Beautiful listening experience…. that is, if you know how to listen.