That is not to say that The Lonely Island's recently released debut album, "Incredibad," which consists of 19 audio tracks supplemented by a DVD of music videos, is not funny, or that the group completely fails in creating a stand-alone comedy album. Rather, "Incredibad" is a chuckle-worthy reminder that sometimes being clever or shocking is not enough to create good comedy. This disconnect between concept and execution is the main hindrance to the album's overall success.
Aesthetically, the album suffers from a production imbalance that plagues many comedy projects. The vocals are far too prominent in the mix, ostensibly to highlight Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer's lyrical wit. While the highly mixed vocals aren't necessarily overpowering during rap sections, the singers are featured far too much on songs with melodic choruses like "Boombox" and "Dreamgirl," which feature Julian Casablancas and Norah Jones, respectively.
On a professionally mastered album like "Incredibad," such inconsistencies are inexcusable. The mastering studio -- New York City's "The Cutting Room" -- has put forth too many quality recordings to explain this tepid balancing (Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life, Vol. 2," Red Hot Chili Peppers' "By the Way" and John Legend's "Evolver" are prominent examples).
And in many cases, it's a shame that the music is not as audible as it should be, because the backing tracks are either exceptional genre parodies (the bad 1990s R&B of "Dick in a Box" and the trashy Euro-style club sound of "Jizz in My Pants" come to mind), or just really catchy. Although I usually can't stand T-Pain, his bridge on "I'm on a Boat" is an excellent self-parody.
Most songs on "Incredibad" revolve around a geeky-white-kids-rapping aesthetic: "Santana DVX," "Like a Boss" and "Natalie's Rap" all make use of staged interviews or conversation to establish the rappers' nerdiness. Although The Lonely Island is certainly very, very nerdy (the fake album covers from the booklet lampoon the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, 1950s doo-wop and Scandinavia), Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer certainly have remarkable rap skills.
The album includes occasional moments of lyrical inspiration, however, like this string from "Santana DVX": "Yo it's the cham-pagn-yuh/from the man with the ban-da-na/I can't stand a flute with anything but San-ta-na." But clever wordplay like this is often dropped in favor of tired shock lyrics like "Everybody started having sex...old people f*cking like rabbits" in "Boombox" and "I always feel safe when I'm in your flesh mitts" in "Dreamgirl."
Essentially, the album boils down to three types of songs: the short and successful, the overlong and self-indulgent, and the "SNL" digital short-backing track.
The first categories includes most of the songs that clock in at under two minutes. These tracks evoke a Beastie Boys-style ensemble flow ("Santana DVX" and "Incredibad" in particular) or are short enough that they don't overdo the comedy (the interludes are excellently timed).
I find "Shrooms" and "Who Said We're Wack?" to be the funniest stand-alone tracks on the album because they don't bite off much more than they can chew, content-wise. The former sounds like nothing more than a 1980s video game console playing a repetitive backing track while a manic choir sings along with "I'm on shrooms!" and "Yay!" "Who Said We're Wack?" includes a short but catchy build-up to an abrupt punch line and does not have the opportunity to lose comedic momentum.
Songs like "Boombox," "Dreamgirl" and "Space Olympics" are of the too-long variety. They are amusing in concept: a magical boombox that resolves all interpersonal conflict, an obsession with both a disgusting girl and Chex Mix brand snacks, and the practical difficulties of holding sporting events in space, respectively. Each of these songs, however, hovers around three minutes, and become tedious around the third verse.
As for the songs that originally found notoriety as the musical backing for Internet-available digital shorts, it's difficult to divorce them from their visual versions, and on their own, they are rather weak. Thankfully, the included DVD has all of these music videos, except for the recently released "I'm on a Boat."
Were "Incredibad" to be released as a CD only, it would not be worth purchasing, but the inclusion of the excellent booklet and DVD gives greater comedic legitimacy to several of the album's songs. As it stands, if you enjoy The Lonely Island's contributions to "Saturday Night Live," "Incredibad" is worth consideration.
