his week on Singles Going Steady—Nas bridges the gap between rap and blues, Green Day go further down the rock opera rabbit hole, The Killers and Mario try to prove their mettle as (at least) two-hit wonders, Ja Rule returns to the charts (who keeps inviting this guy, exactly??) and Eminem single-handedly keeps George W. Bush from getting re-elected. Almost, anyway.


Eminem
Mosh
[5.0]

Josh Love: You know what, fuck Eminem. The fractious voice of Generation 9/11, Em maybe had the chance to help pull the youth vote, and instead he drops this tuneless turd sandwich. On November 1 it was just a misfire, but on November 5 it’s so lifeless and irrelevant that it sounds like an early admission of defeat. Can’t wait to hear it on Encore!
[0]

Ian Mathers: Well Jesus, Marshall, this was a waste of time. Not a bad song, though. Nice doomy piano, and maybe having something to be mad about will be good for Eminem.
[6]

Kareem Estefan: We’ve all heard these criticisms levied at Bush before, and we’ve also heard Eminem’s “serious” production plod like this. Still, “Mosh” aptly encapsulates the rage and determination so many young voters felt a few days ago. Ten years from now, we’ll be able to look back at “Mosh”’s video and remember the frustrations of Bush’s first term like we’re living them all over again. Hopefully by then we no longer will be.
[6]

Andrew Unterberger: As irrelevant as this sounds now, and even as irrelevant it sounded being released barely days before the election, I gotta admit, Eminem still really knows how to rally the troops. Em’s intensity is usually directly proportional to the quality of his singles, and this is no exception—the pounding drums and piano, the storm sounds, even his fuck-Bush ranting—the guy knows how it’s done, plain and simple.
[7]

Matt Chesnut: Well, now that we can look at this in hindsight, boy, this really got out the vote. That aside, it’s marked improvement over “Just Lose It”. It actually sounds a little ominous, like If Bush wins, you’re gonna have scary music follow you into dark alleys. The message here? Bush will send you off to war and you will die. Oh, so that’s what Diddy meant!
[6]


Nas
Bridging the Gap
[6.0]

Josh Love: It’s a damn shame the drums are so hot, because the harmonica riff is uglier than Jay-Z. Speaking of Jigga, he says wants to be like Talib Kweli, so I guess it’s fitting for Nas to try and emulate Mos Def. Unfortunately it’s Mos ca. 2004, and one was already one too many. They keep this shit up and Ja Rule’s gonna sneak up and steal the crown. Wait, no he’s not, nevermind.
[4]

Ian Mathers: Hey, yeah, why doesn’t rap draw on the blues like this more often? It seems obvious now. The whole father/son thing is pretty heartwarming, but even aside from that this pretty much works. More rappers should give props to Howling Wolf. It gets a little self-congratulatory at the end, but up until then
[7]

Kareem Estefan: The standard blues lick grates more with each listen, but even if it grows tiring, “Bridging the Gap” excellently displays Nas’ confident delivery. Moreover, the song’s sprawling beat accentuates the repetitive riff with enough fervor to breathe a little truth, however momentary, into the proclamations that Nas is “the greatest man alive”.
[7]

Andrew Unterberger: I’m really quite torn about this. I like Nas not repeating himself and doing something totally unlike anything else on the radio right now, but it never quite gels—even the chorus between Olu and Nas feels sort of awkward. Still, it always makes for an interesting listen, if not a totally compelling one.
[5]

Matt Chesnut: I wish all father-son collaborations were this good. Or, I wish there were more father-son collaborations so I could have a better gauge of how good they can be. This is certainly a start. That’s some porch-stompin’ blues there. That’s some Nas rhymes there, too. Maybe it’s a bit gimmicky, but it’s got me smiling, so I’m not arguing.
[7]


Green Day
Boulevards of Broken Dreams
[6.6]

Josh Love: This one wants to be anthemic, but Green Day can’t decide whether to give in to the manipulative cheese-pop machinations or not, so everything sounds like it’s halfway there. Dudes, you wrote every 18-24 year-old’s high school graduation song, just stop frontin’ on nuance already.
[5]

Ian Mathers: I really don’t want to overrate this due to my love of the album, and it does sound a little odd out of context, but that processed guitar thingy that opens this song is awesome. I would have preferred if they’d excerpted “Dearly Beloved/Tales Of Another Broken Home” from “Jesus Of Suburbia” for a single (because who didn’t love “Brain Stew/Jaded”?), but every song on the album sounds like a single to me.
[8]

Kareem Estefan: “I walk a lonely road / The only one that I have ever known.” Do opening lines get any more dramatic than that? And the song doesn’t let up, offering one platitude after another to prove that Billy Joel is the loneliest rock star in America. Meanwhile, epic guitars crash around piano-driven verses that show how “serious” this guy really is, until we’re all astonished to find that the song’s only four and half minutes long. But even more surprising – for all “Boulevard”’s melodrama, the melody’s strong enough to make me want to listen to it again.
[8]

Andrew Unterberger: This angry-young-loner anthem is more my type of Green Day than the brainy-but-brainless three-chord romp of “American Idiot,” although I’m not sure I could necessarily tell you why. In any event, isn’t it great to see Green Day back on top again? Can’t think of any more deserving elder statesmen than them.
[7]

Matt Chesnut: It’s the new Green Day single and there’s…piano? Well, all right. I’m wondering if there will ever be a song (aside from the material from their heyday) that will make me a Green Day believer. “American Idiot” is growing on me, but this isn’t yet. It sounds better in the context of the suite after “Holiday”, if that’s any consolation.
[5]


Mario
Let Me Love You
[4.2]

Josh Love: If Usher’s LeBron, Anthony Hamilton’s Ben Wallace, and Kevin Lyttle is Michael Redd, Mario’s just about Omar Cook by now. In other words, back to the D-League, son.
[4]

Ian Mathers: Some truly awful lyrical choices in order to rhyme properly aside (come on, “make me your selection”? Dude, are you a bag of chips in a vending machine?), this isn’t awful. Even if the song is like “Is She Really Going Out With Him”, only addressed to the girl directly and without any guts. Yes, Mario, she really is; and if you weren’t such a goddamned milquetoast maybe you’d have a chance.
[4]

Kareem Estefan: As standard, smooth, and innocuous as “Let Me Love You” is, its mediocrity really isn’t offensive in the least. Just uneventful.
[5]

Andrew Unterberger: In “I Don’t Wanna Know,” Mario Winans had one of the most underrated singles of the year—a totally new take on the she-done-me-wrong ballad that was as devastating as anything released this year (well, besides “Fuck You (I Don’t Want You Back),” anyway). The new one is far more standard loverman fare, but it still keeps the sleek sound and remains a cut above the Anthony Hamiltons of modern soul.
[6]

Matt Chesnut: If your head’s bobbing, it means you’re nodding off repeatedly. Oof, this one’s a clunker.
[2]


Ja Rule f/ R. Kelly and Ashanti
Wonderful
[3.2]

Josh Love: Feel like you’re getting upstaged? I got four words that’ll change all that – “R. Kelly and Ashanti.” Don’t have to worry about nobody pullin’ a nine (what, you think Ja is thug?) or stealin’ your shine. Incidentally, I do think I’d rather get hit with pepper spray than have to hear this song ever again.
[2]

Ian Mathers: Another song where R and Ja bitch about how hard their lives are. Why does Ja Rule even still have a career? There’s better pop rap, better songs featuring Ashanti (“Southside”, anyone?) and, well, this ain’t “Ignition”, remixed or not. Extra marks off for Kelly’s contention that “life’s a pussy buffet”.
[3]

Kareem Estefan: “If it wasn't for the money, cars and movies stars and jewels / And all these things I got / I wonder, hey / Would you still want me?” Lacking any semblance of personality or charm (except possibly in R. Kelly’s hilarious observation that “life’s a pussy buffet”), this song seems to answer its own question. There is absolutely no reason to listen to “Wonderful” other than the fame of the three artists behind it.
[3]

Andrew Unterberger: The mere sound of Ja Rule’s ridiculous sub-DMX bark is enough to make me crack up, and this may even be a new low for him. It’s telling that R. Kelly takes over about half of the song, and even he’s on auto-autopilot. And who’s gonna save it from there? Ashanti? Nuh-uh.
[2]

Matt Chesnut: Damn you, R. Kelly. I want so much to commit an additional fifty words on why Ja Rule and Ashanti suck. And even though R. Kelly is traveling a beaten path, damn if it’s not some of that R. Kelly magic. And for every positive thing you say about R. Kelly, he gets one less month of potential jail time. Still, I’m not floored, so the Ja Rule/Ashanti hate-a-thon must go on.
[6]


The Killers
Mr. Brightside
[8.0]

Josh Love: This is SO not where I thought I’d get my single of the week. MUCH better than “Somebody Told Me,” it’s kinda heart-stopping and heart-breaking at the same time, bittersweet I think is the word. All apologies for not actually listening to this album before we did the Shortlist column a couple weeks back.
[8]

Ian Mathers: It’s better than “Somebody Told Me” because it does that thing where everything fires at once that happens during the chorus and does it for the whole song. The Killers are still as ephemeral as all get out, but since when is that a bad thing? God only knows what Flowers means when he says “I’m Mr. Brightside”, but it sounds great.
[8]

Kareem Estefan: Listening to “Mr. Brightside,” it becomes apparent why singles from The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand have worn thin, and it’s not their unoriginality. The Killers can’t claim to be any more inventive than their peers, but they’ve got passion, and even if “Mr. Brightside”’s lyrics lack artistry, their melodies are explosive enough to compensate.
[8]

Andrew Unterberger: It’s not often these days that modern rock truly soars, but the Killers definitely do that here. It’s a song like this that reminds of why Interpol will never really be that popular—their sound is still a little too angular, too sterile, and they never sound as warm and glowing as the chorus to “Mr. Brightside” does. Might be even better than “Somebody Told Me,” let’s hope it becomes as popular.
[9]

Matt Chesnut: There a million bands like this and, perhaps by chance, The Killers emerge as one the more heavily promoted. Their first single was not indicative of what they could do, but I’d like to think “Mr. Brightside” is. It’s a terrifically written song and even the sometimes grating, sometimes negligible vocals are decent. I give them three years before they fall off the face of the earth, though.
[7]