The elements for an Enrique-lite pop act are all in place: a cutesy, denim-clad, doe-eyed young buck sings faux-touching, unassuming power ballads laced with pop, R&B and doo-wop. Don’t let these surface details confuse you, however, as there’s another ingredient in the mix that suburban parents didn’t quite bargain for. We’re talking more ‘ho-wop’ here: Eamon’s Vanilla Ice-type schmaltz is laced with uncompromising, no-holds-barred street talk.
Currently causing all manner of chaos from atop the US and UK pop charts, the Staten Islander is perhaps garnering frenzied headlines for all the wrong reasons. It’s hardly surprising, given that his hit single ‘Fuck It (I Don’t Want You Back)’ is a bizarre and jarring concoction of Boyz II Men-type sappy sentimentality and shockingly misogynistic language that shows Eminem up for the choirboy he is. Simply put, it’s silently riotous – Chuck Berry’s ‘My Ding A Ling’ for the Noughties.
If it’s at all possible to look beyond the gimmicky lyrics, I Don’t Want You Back stands tall as a rather finely produced, well-written album. The music somehow tends to lack attitude and swagger, which perhaps makes the no-holds-barred lyrics even more shocking and powerful than they would be against the usual backdrop.
Titles like ‘I Love Them Ho’s’, ‘Get Off My Dick’ and ‘I’d Rather Fuck With You’ may sound more at home on the NWA album that never was, yet in this instance, they are cannily contrasted with a whiter-than-white album that N’Sync would have been proud to call their own. Hey, at least the contrast is original.