American teen idol Austin Mahone drops new single Dirty Work
The young American pop star Austin Mahone did not have an international chart topper yet, but with 13 million likes on Facebook, it is undeniable that he has a big fan following. He rose to fame in 2013 with the moderate hit ‘What About Love’, a pop song with the vibe of the 90s boybands with an updated production. He had another single out in 2014, ‘Mmm Yeah’ in collaboration with Pitbull, that reached the charts in some countries, but was musically not that interesting. He released two EP’s so far and has a new single out on the 10th of July called ‘Dirty Work’. Will this be the breakout hit he needs?

Let’s start by saying that Mahone has grown over the past year, as he sounds a bit more mature on his new single, both vocally and musically. If you compare it to ‘Mmm Yeah’ that was mediocre at best, ‘Dirty Work’ is way more interesting and actually sounds contemporary instead of chasing trends that already died out. The song is produced well and the guitar fits well with the funky rhythm. The chorus with some added sax is a true earworm that won’t leave your mind soon, but it’s not annoying at all so we’ll just take that. The song does not really need the ‘nanana’ bridge, which seems a bit misplaced as the song itself is already catchy enough.

The lyrics about ‘having to work in a relationship’ are quite playful and clever and fit the carefree melody and swinging production. To come back to the question if this will be his first worldwide super hit, I’m not so sure, because it is not really distinctive enough to really stand out on radio. At the same time it is a huge step forward musically for the young pop star. He is young, talented and loved by a lot of young ladies. And let’s be fair, Justin Bieber didn’t exactly set the charts on fire internationally in the first years of his career either. In this day and age pop artists can easily thrive online and I’m sure Mahone’s time will come.