Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 25/10/06
Label: Polydor

In the case of the miraculous rebirth of the Black Eyed Peas, the question of just who reinvented who is one of chicken and egg complexity. Back in 2002, they were a socially aware hip hop trio, with two brilliantly old skool, and distinctly uncommercial, albums to their name. By 2003 they'd recruited teen pop refugee Stacy 'Fergie' Ferguson, injected a hefty dose of R&B and scored a massive hit with "Where Is The Love?". It's obvious that Fergie's arrival had a massive impact, but was she the catalyst of change or just the vehicle for it?

By way of an answer, it might be better to ask just whose debut solo album "The Dutchess" actually is, Fergie's or BEP's mainstay Will.I.Am's? With all but four of the 16 tracks either produced or written by Will.I.Am, many featuring his raps and all released via the Will.I.Am Music Group, it's not a massive leap to conclude that just as Fergie's recruitment allowed Will.I.Am to pursue a more pop agenda for the BEP, so her solo career has conveniently afforded him the opportunity to try out of those 'female pop tracks' he's been working on.

It's a furiously eclectic album. An unrelenting riot of styles, confused as it is excitable, ingenious as it is unpredictable. A lot like recent Black Eyed Peas records really. From the booty-shaking electro of "Fergalicious" to the Little Richard-sampling "Clumsy", there's a chasm of style and logic. Between the ska-rock of "Wake Up" and Janet Jackson-esque R&B shimmer of "Glamorous", there's little common ground, save for some outstanding production and bursts of genius.

It's all the frantic work of an overactive imagination, which unfortunately doesn't appear to have stopped to consider who it was working for. For all its brilliance, and despite having her name all over the credits, nothing sounds like it was written with Fergie in mind. "Voodoo Doll" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" are pure Pink, "London Bridge"'s raucous thump has Gwen Stefani stamped all over it and "All That I Got (The Make Up Song)" sounds so much like Mariah Carey that Fergie practically does an impersonation of her for it.

So while "The Dutchess" may be loaded with future hits and staggering imagination, it's also fundamentally flawed. Where the likes of Stefani and co manage to tie eclectic albums together with the strength of their personality, Fergie never actually comes close to showing what she really sounds like, leaving "The Dutchess" as an exceptionally random R&B mixtape. Far from establishing her as a star in her own right, all it really proves is how phenomenally talented Will.I.Am is.

    by Dan Gennoe