Black Eyed Peas - 'Boom Boom Pow'
At last! A hip hop comeback we can really get behind! Eminem might not be wowing people with his frayed new material, but at least we can all count on the Black Eyed Peas to keep the flag flying for quality beats, deft lyrical excellence, and all the other services to the art of hilarious bragging in rhythm.
OK, I grant you this is not a position I'd have held, say, a month ago, but you've got to move fast in the world of popular music. Opinions you may have held once - such as the idea that the Black Eyed Peas possibly did not have as much to be smug about as they may have continuously claimed - have to be able to withstand the changing facts, or risk being tossed aside.
And the fact is, this is a brilliant song. I know this because I have conducted tests, and the results are undeniable. It sounds brilliant on headphones on a bus, it sounds brilliant on the radio, it's brilliant on the telly, brilliant on a super-mega-ultra-licious sound system, and it will drive you scatty if someone plays it through their phone speakers on a bus, which might not be brilliant for you, but stuff it, it's still a good sign.
(. It's like the Tommy Sparks one but with a proper budget)
And, helpfully, the band have elected to explain what is brilliant about the song as they go along. It's all to do with their old school 808 beats, and their forward-thinking musical attitude. Will.I.Am has a very good beat, OK, and he's going to drop it on you. Don't worry, it won't hurt, it's more of a gutpunch than a facebiff. And Fergie is apparently "so 3008", which beats you, because you are "two thousand and late". Got it? Good.
(Quite how anyone who is overdoing the hypercliche autotune to this degree can claim to be ahead of the curve is beyond me, but then I'm clearly not particularly 3008, so what do I know?)
OK, so Will's claim that he steps on leprechauns is a bit rubbish, either because it's cruel, or because they don't exist, depending on what you choose to believe. And there's a chance that if you play nothing but this and 'Bonkers' by Dizzee Rascal for more than two hours straight, you'll never go to university, but these are but minor quibbles against the hypnotic wonder of this ridiculously brilliant song.
Now, is anyone taking bets on Razorlight actually being the saviours of modern rock after all?
Download: Out now
CD Released: May 25th
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
"It's a fairly ridiculous robopop stomper featuring no real chorus."
"It looks like 2009 will be just as vocoder-filled as 2008 was."
"Taboo no longer seems very exotic. Maybe it's cause he got that Stepford wife haircut?"
Comment number 1.
At 17th May 2009, BloggingLiam wrote:Wouldnt give it 5 stars, but it is sure a grower. I think I like it more every time I hear it. Bonkers is instantly likeable though.
Ive a feeling that around Septmber theres going to be a lot of tracks that sound like these 2.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 17th May 2009, RandomEnigma wrote:Haha this review made me laugh out loud.
"Well I'm not 3008 so what do I know?"
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 17th May 2009, Kim-ley wrote:I like this song, but I would like it so much better if it was a bit shorter...it gets very repetitive near the end of the song.
Good summer music though, because this is one you turn up and sing even if you don't know the words (or the rest of the words besides boom, boom, pow!)
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 18th May 2009, Daniel wrote:This song is well worth 5 stars! I can listen to it over and over.
One thing I thought I would never say about music is....
I much prefer the clean version over the explicit one. The explicit one is all just "sh*t sh*t sh*t". The clean version sounds so much better because they use actual words that would fit!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 22nd May 2009, spirit wrote:Yeah most people in the know realise that this is a brilliant song !
Have loved this for ages, great to dance to.
A lot of things in this song are very forward thinking and it sounds modern and so fresh.
A lot of other similar acts have just seen the benchmark raised a couple of inches by the whole scope of this song.
Superb stuff.
There are so many great moments in this song they are too numerous to name.
Anyone who wants to know why this blog is way ahead of other competitors can just compare the fact that the above review has 34 lines of intense insight, while a review of this song in a national newspaper today had six lines woefully written that just dismissed the song in a smug , pompous, self righteous manner which gave no information or insight whatsoever !
They did mention that it had gone to number one on downloads alone, but never mentioned the merits of the song that may have encouraged 75,000 people to do so before the song was physically released !
Trust me , if you want to read in depth, informative ,insightful reviews, you are to all intents and purposes.... in the right place !
Keep up the good work Chartblog !
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)