UPDATE: The reason Zayn's 'leaked' track sounds so much like a One Direction song? It turns out the song was initially recorded months ago by Zayn and Naughty Boy and it was intended to go onto One Direction's album Four, reports The Sun. Except, well, it got rejected. And now, the link below won't work as the track's been pulled by some power that be.
You can tell a lot about the calibre of musicians’ spats on Twitter these days, when the end result of Naughty Boy (Zayn Malik’s producer) and Louis Tomlinson (Zayn’s best mate in One Direction before he left last week) falling out is the release of a demo by Zayn.
Yup, he’s been gone from the world’s biggest boyband for under a week, citing ‘stress’ for his departure and saying that he wants to be ‘a normal 22-year-old’ and he’s already got a demo out.
And the song, well, I Don’t Mind is hardly a Geri Halliwell-style Look At Me. It’s a downtempo, folky song over a fumbly guitar and Zayn’s voice is so high pitched and morose, it sounds like he’s crying throughout. It’s the sort of sad-spirited song that would do well in the background of an advert for the Dog’s Trust.
We hadn’t pegged Zayn as a folk singer – especially working with Naughty Boy, who’s best known for his garage-influenced new-soul with Sam Smith (that* La La* song is still on repeat in our head, thanks). But his new direction knows no bounds, and it’s a lot more promising than the hip hop he’d been hinting at veering into.
Louis’s initial tweet in the spat with Naughty Boy (who’s been spotted recording with Zayn almost every day since he left One Direction to ‘be a normal 22-year-old’) has set the tone for most of the song’s criticism. Where Louis led with:
Fans are following, using the #masterofallwisdom hashtag:
But others are more positive, with one saying:
One savvy listener summed up the general feeling:
But what do you think of the track? Tell us on Twitter @TheDebrief
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.