There’s a moment on KONNAKOL that tells you everything about what Zayn is capable of and everything about what this album almost becomes. It’s on opener “Nusrat,” named after the legendary Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and it arrives in a handful of words: “Seven years and a million things running through my mind. My head was in the weeds.” For a brief stretch, the mask comes down and you’re listening to someone genuinely reckoning with where they’ve been. It’s the kind of vulnerability that makes you lean in — and it makes the rest of the album’s more guarded moments all the more noticeable.
That tension runs quietly through KONNAKOL. The album’s title references konnakol, the South Indian Carnatic tradition of performing percussion syllables vocally, and Zayn has spoken about his heritage being at the heart of this record more than any before it. That ambition is real and it shows, but threading cultural identity through a mainstream R&B framework without losing either is no small thing — and it’s worth acknowledging that the tightrope he’s walking here is a genuinely difficult one.
When it works, it really works. “Fatal” is the album’s most thrilling moment — a dark, pulsing track that breaks open into a Urdu vocal post-chorus, repeated and hypnotic, where the album’s cultural concept stops being a backdrop and starts doing actual work inside the song. It’s the clearest example of his two worlds meeting on equal terms, and it’s the kind of track that makes you wish the rest of the record had been as brave.
Elsewhere, the South Asian influences surface more subtly — in production textures, in rhythmic choices — woven into what is predominantly a confident, well-crafted R&B album. This is Zayn in familiar territory: sensual, atmospheric, and vocally magnetic. The sexuality is front and centre throughout, very much in keeping with his instincts as a writer, and the production is polished without ever feeling sterile.
But “Nusrat” lingers as a reminder of the album that might have been. Zayn has a story worth telling in full — identity, heritage, belonging — and the bones of it are here. It just feels, at times, like he’s still holding something back on the songwriting side, still keeping a careful distance from the more exposed version of himself that occasionally breaks through. That’s not a fatal flaw. It’s more an invitation — to go further next time, now that the groundwork has been laid.
KONNAKOL is an artist finding a more complete version of himself, even if he hasn’t quite arrived yet. As fifth albums go, that’s a meaningful place to be.
ZAYN is heading out on his biggest UK tour later this year, find out more here.
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