Zayn's new album — "Icarus Falls"

[LyricalLesson]

...has flopped, BADLY.

However, regardless of how terribly it's doing on the charts...I am extremely impressed.

Zayn has been fairly consistent for me. I, hands down, LOVED his debut album "Mind Of Mine"...every single track on its original release. I still bump the album regularly.

I feared that "Icarus Falls" was going to suffer the dreaded sophomore slump since I loved "M.O.M." so much, and was split on my feelings of the 6 singles released preceding the album. Despite my reservations, I still pre-ordered the album the first day the pre-order option was available. I am pleasantly surprised and impressed with the end product.

Of the 27 songs on the LP, I enjoy 19 of them! In this day and age, I'm lucky to like half of the songs on an album. I'm an R&B head at heart, and this album is filled with dark, moody R&B and dark urban pop gems.

The highlights for me are: "Common", "All That", "Imprint", "Natural", "Too Much (feat. Timbaland)", "Back To Life", "Tonight", "If I Got You", "There You Are", "Insomnia", "Fingers" & "Sour Diesel".

I see that no one is talking about the album or him (probably because no one has bought the album ), so I figured I'd see if anyone else was diggin' this project.

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

I downloaded it and I love the single “Good Years” but that’s the only song that I connected with (via the iTunes preview, no less) 

i went through the album, I’m going to have to go through it again sooner or later. 27 tracks is a bit much (too much imo) which means there’s a LOT of filler 

[kidfresh832]

I like Zayn.  I think he has proven to be the most talented individually from one Direction.

His major issue is promotion other than videos.  Does he even tour solo?  I thought I read he has a sort of stage fright since leaving One Direction.  Performing is the biggest part of music these days.  You gotta get out there and hustle and show your face to make the real money these days.

[LyricalLesson]

2 hours ago, Game For Now said:

I downloaded it and I love the single “Good Years” but that’s the only song that I connected with (via the iTunes preview, no less) 

i went through the album, I’m going to have to go through it again sooner or later. 27 tracks is a bit much (too much imo) which means there’s a LOT of filler 

I felt the same way when I heard about the announcement of the track listing. So much opportunity for wack, uninspired filler to flood the project. However, after listening to it for over a week now, I truly dig the majority of the songs, and I don't immediately think "filler" when listening through. 

Definitely give it another chance, a good thorough listen through and you might like at least a few more. If you like "Good Years", I think you'll like "There You Are" — both of those songs have that 1D kind of vibe.

1 hour ago, kidfresh832 said:

I like Zayn.  I think he has proven to be the most talented individually from one Direction.

His major issue is promotion other than videos.  Does he even tour solo?  I thought I read he has a sort of stage fright since leaving One Direction.  Performing is the biggest part of music these days.  You gotta get out there and hustle and show your face to make the real money these days.

I agree wholeheartedly with EVERYTHING you just stated here. I think Zayn is the most talented of the 5 guys from 1D. And PROMOTION (or lack thereof) is ABSOLUTELY the major contributor to this album's lack of success. He doesn't tour solo, he's lazy. In a weird, twisted way — I actually admire his laziness and blazé, IDRGAF approach to succes. Only because it's the polar opposite of what a cookie-cutter 25 year old pop star in the industry would do. He a reluctant celebrity, reclusive in ways. And I find that refreshing.

I just hate that a really quality project is going to go by the wasteside as a result. In a day and age where mainstream R&B/Urban pop doesn't really exist anymore due to the infiltration of Trap, Hip Hop, and Electronic/EDM — this guy really carved out a large amount of real good contributions to the genre.

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

2 hours ago, LyricalLesson said:

I felt the same way when I heard about the announcement of the track listing. So much opportunity for wack, uninspired filler to flood the project. However, after listening to it for over a week now, I truly dig the majority of the songs, and I don't immediately think "filler" when listening through. 

Definitely give it another chance, a good thorough listen through and you might like at least a few more. If you like "Good Years", I think you'll like "There You Are" — both of those songs have that 1D kind of vibe.

I agree wholeheartedly with EVERYTHING you just stated here. I think Zayn is the most talented of the 5 guys from 1D. And PROMOTION (or lack thereof) is ABSOLUTELY the major contributor to this album's lack of success. He doesn't tour solo, he's lazy. In a weird, twisted way — I actually admire his laziness and blazé, IDRGAF approach to succes. Only because it's the polar opposite of what a cookie-cutter 25 year old pop star in the industry would do. He a reluctant celebrity, reclusive in ways. And I find that refreshing.

I just hate that a really quality project is going to go by the wasteside as a result. In a day and age where mainstream R&B/Urban pop doesn't really exist anymore due to the infiltration of Trap, Hip Hop, and Electronic/EDM — this guy really carved out a large amount of real good contributions to the genre.

I don’t like 1D and I couldn’t name a 1D song with a gun to my head

I just like the message and sound 

[LyricalLesson]

2 hours ago, Game For Now said:

I don’t like 1D and I couldn’t name a 1D song with a gun to my head

I just like the message and sound 

Oops, I did kind of assume you liked 1D right there I'm actually in the same boat — was NOT a fan of the group, and I think I could maybe name 2 of their songs if I had a gun to my head, haha.

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

4 minutes ago, LyricalLesson said:

Oops, I did kind of assume you liked 1D right there I'm actually in the same boat — was NOT a fan of the group, and I think I could maybe name 2 of their songs if I had a gun to my head, haha.

Yeah to be honest I’m a Harry Styles “fan” over Zayn 

How come only one member per group can garner fame?

[LyricalLesson]

On 12/24/2018 at 4:40 PM, Game For Now said:

Yeah to be honest I’m a Harry Styles “fan” over Zayn 

How come only one member per group can garner fame?

I'm not a fan of the other guys in the group, but I would honestly say that they've broken that all too true "only one member per group can be famous" — aside from Zayn, the trio of Harry, Liam and Niall have all really done their thing solo so far. All have had at least one sizable hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and sell a lot a tickets as far as tour sales go. The other guy Louis, is a judge on the X Factor panel now .

It's surprising that none of the four that have released albums have really flopped. Shows just how strong their fan base really was/is.

[Rock & Roll Hall of Game]

52 minutes ago, LyricalLesson said:

I'm not a fan of the other guys in the group, but I would honestly say that they've broken that all too true "only one member per group can be famous" — aside from Zayn, the trio of Harry, Liam and Niall have all really done their thing solo so far. All have had at least one sizable hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and sell a lot a tickets as far as tour sales go. The other guy Louis, is a judge on the X Factor panel now .

It's surprising that none of the four that have released albums have really flopped. Shows just how strong their fan base really was/is.

Yeah but Harry is the most successful of the four guys overall.. like Kelly Rowland and Jermaine Jackson both had some success but not equal to the leader of the pact

Album sales are all of their strong points... just Harry but you’re right, they’ve all had single success which is impressive