Spring Break
Will.i.am Drops New Album
CD Review
John Bailey
Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: Focus
Will.i.am, frontman and producer for the Black Eyed Peas, dropped his newest solo effort on Sept. 25. The album is called Songs About Girls, and there's no pretense. These are real songs, and they are about girls. According to will.i.am, the album is a semi-autobiographical conceptual piece about falling into and out of love. It's all here, certainly: boy likes girl, boy and girl have trouble, boy and girl breakup and a boy is bummed.
Actually, the formula holds if you replace "girl" with "booty," as half of the tracks on "Songs About Girls" are about the proverbial junk in the trunk. "The Donque Song," which ends up being the best cut by far, makes use of some pretty mind-blowing extended metaphors Snoop Dogg provides a hint in his brief but stellar cameo: "The big donque? The big booty!". will.i.am raps bits and pieces about love, strife and remorse ("One More Chance," "Invisible"), but this is party music. According to the book that will.i.am's Black Eyed Peas wrote, party music is about butts.
The first single from the album, "I Got It from My Mama," fails to impress. It's shallower musically than earlier Black Eyed Peas singles, and not as guiltily catchy as "Let's Get It Started" or even "My Humps." The track features Nicole Scherzinger on a Fergy-esque refrain, who reminds you incessantly exactly where she got it from. At least the science behind the song is sound: "If a girl real pretty, nine times out of 10 she pretty like her mama/ and if her mama real ugly I guarantee you she gon' be ugly like her mama." Undeniably a will.i.am- geneticist extraordinaire!
will.i.am's rhyme is servicable, a few real clunkers notwithstanding ("Got a real pretty face/ tig ol' bits/ I just wanna pay you some compliments"). The album's second single, "One More Chance," features him speaking about something other than rears, and he actually leans into eloquence with lyrics like, "We be going back and forth like volleyball/ battle with each other like Galactica". Generally, though, he sticks to singing spacey complements to the deep funk/disco beats. Actually, that's all some songs are: sparse, repeated phrases and dance-able rhythms. will.i.am manages to get by with this dance album, however the lyrics cannot carry the album on their own. Will would possibly have a better album if the rest of the proposed cameos, including Busta Rhymes, Too $hort, Ludacris and others, actually made it to the final release.
Musically, "Songs About Girls" is all deep bass and floaty synth, and 90 percent of the tracks sound the same. Crunchy, disco-tinged guitar licks adorn cuts, adding a nice tough and the "Donque Song" is a dirty, electro-funk joy to listen to.
Tail-shaking and party beats are classics of dance-hall hip-hop, and it's not as if the album takes itself too seriously, although describing "Songs For Girls" as a "conceptual piece" is like calling "My Humps" a "women's liberation anthem." This is music to dance to, and dancing will probably happen. When the butts stop bouncing, however, it's hard to justify buying this album. The three singles are worth listening to, and don't be surprised if you start singing about donkeys in the shower. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is completely forgettable. Buy the singles on iTunes and wait for the next legitimate Black Eyed Peas release.
Contact John Bailey at John.Bailey@UConn.edu
Actually, the formula holds if you replace "girl" with "booty," as half of the tracks on "Songs About Girls" are about the proverbial junk in the trunk. "The Donque Song," which ends up being the best cut by far, makes use of some pretty mind-blowing extended metaphors Snoop Dogg provides a hint in his brief but stellar cameo: "The big donque? The big booty!". will.i.am raps bits and pieces about love, strife and remorse ("One More Chance," "Invisible"), but this is party music. According to the book that will.i.am's Black Eyed Peas wrote, party music is about butts.
The first single from the album, "I Got It from My Mama," fails to impress. It's shallower musically than earlier Black Eyed Peas singles, and not as guiltily catchy as "Let's Get It Started" or even "My Humps." The track features Nicole Scherzinger on a Fergy-esque refrain, who reminds you incessantly exactly where she got it from. At least the science behind the song is sound: "If a girl real pretty, nine times out of 10 she pretty like her mama/ and if her mama real ugly I guarantee you she gon' be ugly like her mama." Undeniably a will.i.am- geneticist extraordinaire!
will.i.am's rhyme is servicable, a few real clunkers notwithstanding ("Got a real pretty face/ tig ol' bits/ I just wanna pay you some compliments"). The album's second single, "One More Chance," features him speaking about something other than rears, and he actually leans into eloquence with lyrics like, "We be going back and forth like volleyball/ battle with each other like Galactica". Generally, though, he sticks to singing spacey complements to the deep funk/disco beats. Actually, that's all some songs are: sparse, repeated phrases and dance-able rhythms. will.i.am manages to get by with this dance album, however the lyrics cannot carry the album on their own. Will would possibly have a better album if the rest of the proposed cameos, including Busta Rhymes, Too $hort, Ludacris and others, actually made it to the final release.
Musically, "Songs About Girls" is all deep bass and floaty synth, and 90 percent of the tracks sound the same. Crunchy, disco-tinged guitar licks adorn cuts, adding a nice tough and the "Donque Song" is a dirty, electro-funk joy to listen to.
Tail-shaking and party beats are classics of dance-hall hip-hop, and it's not as if the album takes itself too seriously, although describing "Songs For Girls" as a "conceptual piece" is like calling "My Humps" a "women's liberation anthem." This is music to dance to, and dancing will probably happen. When the butts stop bouncing, however, it's hard to justify buying this album. The three singles are worth listening to, and don't be surprised if you start singing about donkeys in the shower. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is completely forgettable. Buy the singles on iTunes and wait for the next legitimate Black Eyed Peas release.
Contact John Bailey at John.Bailey@UConn.edu
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