Review Summary: Not incredibad, but pretty whack, dawg.
The Lonely Island are an iconic group of jokey jokers. Collaborating with every famous singer in existence, they would make catchy songs and capture the guffahs of millions, with absurd lyrics and yell-rapping (mostly yelling on a beat, but not in a cool Rage Against The Machine way). Then something happened: they became derivative. This is the story of their third album, the album that was but wasn’t.
It is a short story. You see, gathering every known celebrity to sing on tracks is only hilarious for so long. Just as terrible rapping is funny until it is terrible to listen to. For example, YOLO has a solid chorus and funny lyrics, but the rapping is unbearable. The song is bolstered and sounds good with the presence of a famous singer. You’ll find that a common theme, and it’s the only thing keeping the album worthy of bringing ears to for an extended period.
The music involves hip-hop and ridiculous or sexual lyrics. Same ol’ for the group, but tiresome after two albums due to the unpleasant-toned parody rapping. They start to sound like one-trick bronies in this release. Slick production allows beats much needed bang, but the cringe rapping remains.
The lyrics are unbelievable or too much sometimes: “never go in saunas cause they’re crawlin’ with piranhas”. What? In the same album they will claim they want to bang women but can’t because of their wife, and then in other songs brag about shagging hoes. Looking up back stories of songs will not make the first listen less baffling. It makes you long for simpler times and simpler lyrics, like when they rapped about Jack Sparrow or being on a boat. This album is focused on being as goofball as possible to the point of lyrics contradicting themselves — an unforgivable consequence.
You can go wrong with this album, because it is The Lonely Island’s music on autopilot. The few decent choruses are not enough to inflate an otherwise soulless product. They’ve created this music before, and much better in the two previous albums. The production is slick, but the songs themselves stink of lack of ingenuity and effort. Nonetheless, a few laughs are had, and if all you want are some dumb laughs have at her.
