Eden: No Future review – One of the slickest Irish albums you’ll hear this year

Dubliner Jonathon Ng is one of Ireland’s hottest artists on the international stage

No Future
    
Artist: EDEN
Genre: R&B / Soul
Label: Astralwerks

Eden is the alias for Dubliner Jonathon Ng. Born in 1995 to an Irish mother and Chinese father, this 24-year old wunderkind released a world-acclaimed debut album entitled Vertigo in 2018. It went to number one in the iTunes chart in 12 countries, accumulated a whopping 200 million streams, and teed up a sold-out world tour.

Ng’s second album as Eden should consolidate his position as one of Ireland’s hottest artists on the international stage. The lead single, Love, Death, Distraction, is a reflection on our social media-obsessed era, which Ng has clearly been able to soak in without losing focus on his music.

"If you're on Instagram and you see someone doing something amazing and you're jealous, you can just put down your phone and go do something amazing too," he notes, which is exactly what he did.

No Future is a tender and emotional hip-hop and r’n’b-infused pop odyssey, which sounds a bit like an extension of some of the ideas explored on Kanye West’s synth and electropop flavoured 808s & Heartbreak.

READ MORE

In a genre often dominated by egotism and narcissism, Ng brings a fresh attitude to the table, committing himself to tape in a home studio, then unleashing it to the world via the global pop and EDM behemoth that handles blue chip artists like Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and Kylie Minogue.

Eden does pop melancholia exceedingly well, producing one of the slickest and sickest Irish albums you’ll hear this, or any other, year.