Originally scheduled for release in September 2017, the album would include Timbaland as one of its producers. He said "What impresses me about Zayn is the vision he has for his music." Zayn stated that the album is "90 percent completed". The CEO of RCA Records Peter Edge said the album consist of a "more optimistic tone to it after coming through that more challenging time", referring to Zayn's time as a member of One Direction in his early career. Speaking about why the album has delayed since late 2017, Zayn said:
Every day I find another song that I'm swapping out with another one. That's why the album date hasn’t really come yet. Even though the album is pretty much there, and I have the material, I'm still changing things here and there.
On Instagram, Zayn revealed snippets of clips from the album, captioned with "Taster z2".