If you don't like SNL Digital Shorts, stop reading now. You'll hate this album. A number of the tracks on this album have debuted as SNL Digital Shorts, including "Lazy Sunday," "Natalie's Rap," (ft. Natalie Portman) and "I'm on a Boat" (ft. T-Pain).
If you don't like music that doesn't take itself seriously, stop reading now. You'll hate this album.
For the rest of you, the album can be summed up in one sentence. The Lonely Island is a group of three self-proclaimed "faux-rappers" whose sense of humor is a mix of tongue-in-cheek parodies, satires of society and mainstream rap, and the jokes typically credited to adolescent fourth graders.
Their album, "Incredibad," is basically a collection of SNL Digital Shorts and tracks recorded while they were screwing around in a studio making fun of rappers and spewing absurd amounts of semi-clever lyrics and awkwardness. No, seriously. They spew awkwardness.
The problem with "humor music" is that the replay value is minimal. One can only listen to a song about being on a boat a few times without getting sick of it. Unfortunately beyond proving their point that mainstream rap is repetitive, their music doesn't hold up as anything you can listen to more than a handful of times.
Some of the songs on the album are just bizarre; "Space Olympics" literally made me cringe with tingles of awkwardness. Others are half-baked attempts at parodies of stereotypes, such as "We Like Sportz," where "Guy #1" and "Guy #2" talk in monotone voices about how they like sports and beer. Guys watch sports and drink beer. Wow, insightful. Granted, some of the lyrics are clever, but the topics are horses that are beaten beyond death.
I'll give the album some credit; I laughed a few times at what were flashes of comedic genius, and they have some great cameos. (Norah Jones, E-40, Natalie Portman, Jack Black.) But seriously, they might want to stick to SNL and YouTube videos.
I give it three lightning bolts out of five, only because I really like SNL Digital Shorts.
