The Lonely Island, INCREDIBAD

The Lonely Island -- comedy trio Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone -- became famous from their Saturday Night Live "digital shorts" but were making comic music well before then. Both songs and videos are on their album Incredibad.

Aiming to be "the greatest fake m.c.s on Earth," the Lonely Island love rapping the best. They go gansta several times, be it about the joys of being on a boat ("I'm the king of the world, on a boat like Leo/if you are on the shore then you sure ain't me yo") or conducting a job interview. They also do synthesizer-based songs about geeky sports fans and guys who are, um, easily excited and fake romantic songs witha, er, very personal gift. Yup, that parental advisory on the album cover is there for a reason.

Incredibad also features a very large number of guest appearances, including T-Pain, Justin Timberlake, SNL regular Chris Parnell, Norah Jones, Jack Black and Natalie Portman (who goes very gangsta).

Incredibad works pretty well. There are a couple of songs that are duds, usually one-joke bits where the joke isn't that funny. But the comedy trio attack even the simplest activities with street-tough zeal or pretentious stylings, and the results are quite funny. Including a dvd with the videos was also a nice move: They add a lot to the songs, though it's odd that some songs here don't have their videos included (no "I'm on a Boat") and there are a few videos where the songs aren't on the album. If you love the SNL skits, or you want some wild humor, go with Incredibad.

Overall Grade: B+

Reviewed by James Lynch