Ridiculously OTT review of “Stan” from the NME. But It’s odd, actually, because we were down the pub last night talking about Bill Hicks and we all agreed that he was quite good but a bit of a sacred cow. That said he’s clearly a better ‘satirist’ than Eminem, although on the other hand Eminem is reaching a much wider audience so there’s more at stake with whatever Eminem says*, whereas Hicks reached, continues to reach and always will reach a coterie of intelligent folks who by and large agree with him and are prepared to chuckle indulgently when they don’t (something which you get the impression BH himself detested).
*(it is a pity that so much of what Eminem does say is fucked-up-artist schtick with good internal rhyming)
“Stan” meanwhile is an overrated track, but I don’t think it’s ‘dumb’ by any means: it’s mealy-mouthed and I dislike the narrative because of Eminem’s insistence on hinting that Stan’s obsession is sexual, and that sample is winsome whether on or off the Dido track. Him saying ‘oh look I don’t mean it’ feels like a bit of a cop-out, he clearly means some of it at least, but his clarifying things wouldn’t help either somehow.