Zayn announces ‘Room Under the Stairs,’ first album in three years

After Zayn Malik spent the past few weeks teasing a new album, the singer officially announced Wednesday that the LP, titled Room Under the Stairs, would arrive May 17.

Malik revealed the album title, cover, and release date on social media. He added that the new project would be available for preorder on Friday — the same day the first single, “What I Am,” releases.

“I think the intention behind this album fully is for the listener to get more insight on me personally as a human being — my ambitions, my fears,” Malik shared in a teaser he dropped last week. “And for them to have a connection with that.”

Rolling Stone previously confirmed the impending release of the album, which was co-produced by Dave Cobb and was written over the course of several years at Malik’s home in rural Pennsylvania. “That’s why it’s raw,” the singer added. “It’s just me writing this I didn’t want anybody else to be in between me and the music and the music and the people listening to it.”

Room Under the Stairs marks Malik’s first album with his new label Mercury Records. “What got me about Zayn was his voice, you can hear love, loss, pain, triumph, and humanity in it. I feel as if this record is removing the glass from his spirit directly to his fans,” Cobb — who previously worked with Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlisle, Lady Gaga and Jason Isbell — said in the teaser. “Zayn has really created his own universe on this record, he really has no fear and is speaking straight from his soul.”

Malik’s last album, Nobody Is Listening, was released in 2021. Since then, he’s shared a couple of scattered singles, including ‘To Begin Again’ with Ingrid Michaelson, a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Angel’ and last year’s ‘Love Like This’. In January, he collaborated with the up-and-coming Pakistani group Aur on a reimagining of their hit single ‘Tu Hai Kahan’.