When I first heard rumors of Zayn Malik releasing a new album, I was, of course skeptical, but still hopeful. His first album as a solo artist “Mind of Mine” in 2016 was a favorite for a while and when his sophomore album “Icarus Falls” was released in 2018, I knew that his third album would be played on repeat. 

I was right. 

Following the release of music videos for “Better,” “Vibez” and a spontaneous phone line tweeted out on Jan. 11 where fans would call and listen to teasers of songs on the album, the anticipation kept building up. Finally, on Jan. 15 the album officially dropped. 

+1 (323)-991-ZAYN

— zayn (@zaynmalik) January 11, 2021

“Nobody is Listening” features 11 songs with two collaborations, one with singer-songwriter, Syd, and the other, rapper Devlin. The album continues to capture the Pop R&B style from his previous albums, and adds stylistic autotune to expand it to fit a modern, futuristic sound. 

When I got around to listening to the album fully, the first track “Calamity” immediately made it impossible to not like the rest of the songs. That first song I think, truly captures what the whole album is about. With the second lyric of the song stating “I feel depleted from feelings I’ve been revealin’” and the cover having red bold lettering with the words “Nobody is Listening” typed at the top, but below having several colorful figures with eyes looking out, he makes his message known. Malik conveys his truth, which is, as a public figure, everyone sees his every move, but no one really listens to him. 

As I continued to listen, I saw a pattern of highs and lows in the lyrics and changes between a dreamy and sorrowful tone. Again, I think this was such a thoughtful artistic choice that drives further his point of the ups and downs of his life as a musician. The tone of the album shifts a bit with the ninth track where Malik ignores the critics and tells them “my vibe and my life are all my design. Your sentiment’s irrelevant, ’cause I get down and up again.” At this point, the album continues that high in his life and eventually mellows out with the final song “River Road.” 

This album was everything I expected but brought many unexpected stylistic choices that I loved. The different tones of the songs, the inclusion of the Urdu language in “Tightrope” and overall construction of the tracklist makes it really stand out. It’s not an album you can listen to once and not want to listen again and again. 

This album is categorized as explicit. Stream “Nobody is Listening” for free on Spotify and Pandora and buy the album for $10.99 on iTunes and Google Play Music.