will.i.am - #willpower

will.i.am - #willpower

Artist – will.i.am

Album – #willpower

Label – Interscope

OUT NOW

Rating – 2/5

 

Over the last couple of years, will.i.am seems to have forgotten about the rest of the Black Eyed Peas, ditching the rest of the band for his slot on The Voice, his roles in movies Rio and X-Men Origins and even plunged his hands into the world of robotics and car design in an effort to leave no stone unturned.

Now he’s finally gotten around to releasing a new solo album for the first time since 2007, he might have been better staying away for a little while longer.

While will.i.am has always had somewhat of a love affair with the old autotuner, #willpower (that album name will always rub this writer up the wrong way) sees him positively get sucked into the computer and never leaves it’s vice like grip. That he even exists in a non-digital form is a miracle.

He’s not alone in his musical journey through the circuit board though, and has dragged in some of his most famous buddies to join him, with Justin Bieber, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus all chipping in their vocal talents for a single track.

From the very start, this feels like an album not so much crafted, but thrown together at the last moment. Almost like will.i.am forgot to do his homework and had to improvise most of the lyrics when his guest starts suddenly rocked up at his studio for a day, forcing them to be little more than a hook surrounded by fluff.

While not terrible, the album is remarkably unmemorable, with its upbeat, breezy tracks all blending into one, amorphous but rather hard to hate blob. It might think it has more tricks up its sleeve than David Copperfield, but none of it's flourishes land with any real impact or style.

The shame is that he actually holds back the two best tracks on the album for it’s ‘deluxe edition’, with ‘Reach For The Stars’ having more about it than the rest of the high tempo tracks and the much more low-key ‘Smile Mona Lisa’ is an absolute breath of fresh air after the rest of the album never makes it out of the club.

While he might claim that ‘he makes Google money’ this is about as deep and meaningful as the average Google Doodle and is hard to remember once you’ve gotten through its lengthy track list.

 

Will.i.am - #willpower is out now

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