Fact: You can waste entire evenings catching up on the Lonely Island's YouTube collection of LOLtastic music videos. With their bad taste skits infused by celebrity guest spots, hip-hop cliches and pop hooks, some of the satirical trio's clips have had more than 50 million hits, turning The Lonely Island
into the undisputed viral video kings. But here's the problem: remove the videos and their songs lose most of their impact. Unlike fellow comedy kings Flight of the Conchords, the Lonely Island's songs don't stand up to repeat listens, so their records - this is their third - can become arduous. With 20 tracks spanning everything from fantastic throwback Beastie Boys-style hip-hop joke-rap (Spell It Out, Meet the Crew) to bonkers club anthems (Go Kindergarten, Semicolon) and hyper Southern rap (Diaper Money, The Compliments), The Wack Album is well produced but a hit-and-miss affair. For every YOLO - a terrific send up of synth-fuelled pop candy - there's an I Don't Give a Honk, a joke-free throwback about swear words. And as good a song as 3-Way is - a sexed-up 80s ballad about threesomes featuring Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga - it's way better on YouTube. So listen to it online - that way you're guaranteed the LOLs.
