Album review: Zayn Malik, Mind of Mine

Zayn Malik was, by every account, the tortured introvert in One Direction. He seemed chronically shy in his X Factor audition and, as the Simon Cowell-spawned group took over the world, is said to have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the demands of stardom. He also disliked One Direction’s pop, recently telling Fader magazine that “As much as I was in that band, and I loved everything that we did, that’s not music that I would listen to.”

Released exactly a year since his departure from 1D, Malik’s solo debut is a surprisingly persuasive articulation of the unease that led him to walk away from one of the most lucrative gigs in pop. The record is self-consciously in the tradition of Justin Timberlake’s Justified and Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall — the go-to examples of teen heartthrob types repositioned as credible, grown-up performers.