Before I get into this, let me just say that I am actually watching the music video and listening to the whole song for the first time for this article, as painful as that may be for me. You’re welcome.
As you may have noticed, Zayn Malik, former member of One Direction, just released his very first single called ‘Pillowtalk’ or ‘PILLOWTALK’ as it is referred to on the artist’s Vevo channel. The track dropped on January 29th and has been getting mixed reviews. While some feel that it just sounds like One Direction but with only one voice, others have described it as sounding like something that would be produced by The Weeknd. I have heard bits and pieces of the song and only seen gifs of the video, so in order to properly review it, I am going to do both, no matter how much I am dreading it as a total One Direction fan.
So the video starts and we see model Gigi Hadid and Zayn, face to face. Can we talk about how his bleached hair over his naturally dark hair is kind of making it look a weird silvery color in half of this video? It’s super bizarre. Also, when Zayn starts singing, he is definitely not opening his mouth enough. Come on, at least create the illusion you’re really singing and not just lip synching. I’m uncomfortable by the mostly naked woman the video keeps jumping to as well; what purpose is she serving? It seems like whoever produced this video said, “hey, Zayn, is it okay if we put in as many effects in this as possible? All you’ve gotta do is stand there and make out with Gigi,” and he was like “go for it”.
The repeated lyric in the song is ‘it’s a paradise and it’s a warzone.’ I’m not sure about everyone else, but when I think of pillowtalk and whatever activities are going on in the bedroom, I don’t want to think about it being a war zone. I don’t want to say that it falls into rape culture, but one of the lyrics refers to ‘pain and pleasure’ so I may not be too far off.
I finished the video and autoplay on YouTube started a countdown until ‘History’ by One Direction started playing. Enough said; Zayn will always be associated with One Direction whether he likes it or not. As different as he tried to make his ‘sound,’ it is always going to sound like 1D because he used to be in the band. What bothers me the most is the fact that in interviews, Zayn Malik has said that he never even wanted to be in the band and that he only took the opportunity because it was there in front of him. Excuse me Zayn, if you never joined, you would have never gotten famous. You got cut from the X Factor. A majority of your ‘fans’ who bought ‘Pillowtalk’ are One Direction fans. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, Zayn. You should be thankful for your time in the ‘biggest boyband in the world’ because it got you the fame that you have, the opportunity to make your own music, and the 17.7 million Twitter followers that support you. By the way, Harry Styles has 27.1 Million.
Overall, I liked the song, it wasn’t bad and it’s pretty catchy. The video however was trippy and had way too many effects going on. I didn’t like that the women in it were used as objects, as one was nude and the other was only there to make out with Zayn. I warned you that this review was completely biased though, so can you blame me? I love and support One Direction and when Zayn left, I respected his choice. But to leave and say you never wanted it in the first place? And then drop a track that you claim is ‘different’ but is really kind of the same as the old stuff? Questionable move.
