New album fails to

impress listeners

Elizabeth Dunbar

Clarion reporter

Last week Will.i.am released his album, Songs about Girls, to a smattering of applause. However, if this album is the lyrical expression of Will.i.am’s experience with girls, I send him my deepest condolences.

Though the song “I Got It From My Mama” came in at number 49 on the iTunes charts, it hardly made a blip on the Billboard charts in its debuting week.

The high placement on the iTunes charts is no doubt a misrepresentation of consumer interest. This is reinforced by the fact that Britney Spears’ intriguingly bad song “Gimme More” topped the same charts above songs like Kanye West’s “Stronger” last week.

I really wanted to like this album but it has all been done before…and better. In a statement issued by his publicist, Will stated, “I didn’t want to come out and say, ‘Hey, I’m a producer and here are all my friends.’ I wanted to be my own man and do my own thing and really try out some ideas that have been bubbling in my head.”

Those ideas were clearly underdeveloped. The album is so repetitive that it makes “The Song That Never Ends” look like a varied and sophisticated masterpiece. That said, the most repetitive song on the album is by far the best.

The song “Impatient” only has seven words but somehow manages to make the listening seem bearable. This might be due to the fact that the lyrics, mainly consisting of the words “I can’t wait,” express the listener’s anticipation for the album to end. This is because, despite his quest to be original, this song is one of two on which he collaborated with other artists.

It’s curious that Will.i.am helped boost Fergie’s credibility as a solo artist but could do nothing for his own.

One can infer that Will.i.am was fairly proud of this album since he released it in the wake of the Kanye West vs. 50 Cent face-off. Will.i.am knew he would be up against two of the strongest albums of the year, but still pressed on with his lackluster noise pollution. In the future, he should stick to being a producer and Black Eyed Peas member. Hopefully he can pull it together when the Black Eyed Peas collaborate on their next album.

This album would have been great in previous years, but pop has evolved immensely over the past year. Now, we are used to thoroughly great albums like Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, and Timbaland’s Shock Value. An artist simply cannot get by on a mediocre album anymore unless they get a lasting number one hit, are going to rehab, and/or are about to fall apart.

If you are thinking about buying this album, I recommend you save your money for something better, for example a macaroni necklace, a patched tire, and some Pokemon cards…gotta catch ’em all.