Mario Barrett's self-titled debut album opens with a licentious bass voice booming: "Y'all ready for me?" Either the 16-year-old R&B newcomer redefines the word "precocious" or - let us hope - an older friend helped out on the intro.
Either way, the intent is certainly there. The little guy may still have Clearasil issues, but in his mind he is Super Mario, cutting a swathe through the ladies of year six. His daunting self-belief has already reaped a No 2 single in the US, and now he has come for London's daughters. Though he is still unknown here to all but readers of the teen press, his first London date was jammed with girls whose thermostats were set to boiling.
His confidence in the face of pelting hormones brings to mind the young Michael Jackson and soul glamourpuss Usher. Assuming he is not simply a fantastic mimic, he has a sexual awareness that should set parental alarm bells ringing. He is already an expert manipulator of emotions, holding hands with girls in the front row for a moment too long and, during the misty Braid My Hair, cuddling a quaking teenager who probably cried herself to sleep later.
If his accelerated development were matched by the music, the competition would be advised to retire now. It isn't. For all his vocal ability, and a fleet-footed way with the bump-and-grind single Just a Friend, he has yet to find a signature style. These generic slow jams and party numbers with a mysterious emphasis on the word "braid" (code for "kiss", apparently) were characterless to the point that only the strongest stylist could have extracted juice from them. Despite his husky-sweet voice, Mario isn't that, yet, and no amount of hand-holding or shout-outs to "all you ladies" could disguise the fact.
Given a song of the quality of Stevie Wonder's Knocks Me Off My Feet, his lack of experience told. Instead of letting the luscious tune sell itself, he attacked it with puppyish glee, shaking it till it succumbed. But these are only the pernickety mutterings of someone outside his target demographic. I'm sitting here wondering about the malign effects of teenage stardom, but if I were 14, I would have been as delirious as the rest.
