BREAKING: Area Music Blogger Posts Positive Review Of "The Dutchess"

One thing we at DHMBIB always look forward to at the start of a new year is The Washington Post's "What's Out and What's In" list for the New Year. The list is always too much of a mish-mash of trying-too-hard-to-make-a-clever-joke-and-missing groaners ["Out: Bible study group...In: Iraq Study Group"] and we're-waaay-cooler-than-you cultural [pop and otherwise] references ["Out: Marchesa...In: Sophia Kokosalaki"] to be taken too seriously, even when it is on the mark ["Out: Anderson Cooper...In: Keith Olbermann"]. And in that respect, this year's list doesn't disappoint.

But one particular entry on this year's list caught our eye: Out: Fergie...In: Lady Sov.

Our friend Chris Cernoch thought this was quite funny, which prompted us to share our belief that "The Dutchess" was, in fact, one of the best mainstream Pop/R&B records of 2006.

Not to take anything away from Lady Sov, who looks to have a legitimate breakout year in the US in 2007. But Fergie's not going anywhere. In fact, we predict that Fergie will remain the go-to Pop/R&B dance Diva through at least the first half of 2007, and that "The Dutchess" will be mined for several hits and will serve as a blueprint for mutliple copycat records yet to come. Nicole Scherzinger, we're looking at you.

Okay, we can already hear you groaning and see you rolling your eyes, but this record really blew us away. Admittedly, Fergie may have benefitted from "the soft bigotry of low expectations", as we only reluctantly clicked "Buy" at the iTMS because we feared the record would contain 13 different mixes of "London Bridge", which was totally annoying us back in August. But we suspected this record would be a huge hit, and probably contained some reasonably good danceable Pop/R&B we could use in some of our DJ gigs.

Boy, were we ever wrong. And were we never so glad to be so wrong.

Beyonce's 2003 smash record "Dangerously In Love" initially set the standard for post-Britney Pop/R&B Divas to follow. [N.B. We place Christina Aguilera in a whole different category of untouchable Pop Diva-ness here at DHMBIB. Hate us if you want.] Beyonce deserved those 5 Grammys she won in 2004. But Gwen Stefani picked up that gauntlet and threw it back down with authority with her 2004 smash "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." "L.A.M.B." was so good, it completely redefined the genre and the public's expectations of early 21st-century Pop/R&B dance Divas.

We were very interested when we heard that Fergie planned a solo record of her own. After all, whatever the haters want to say about Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas, Fergie is the only reason the BEPs are where they are, and why anyone continues to care about them. And will.i.am is an undeniably talented producer. "London Bridge" made us very anxious about the potential disaster ahead, but we at DHMBIB love us a good redemption story, so we decided to give "The Dutchess" a chance.

And boy are we glad we did.

"The Dutchess" has completely reset the bar once again. Go back and listen to "L.A.M.B." again now, and note how outdated and, well, so 2004 it already sounds. In our not-so-humble opinions, "The Dutchess" was even the main reason why Beyonce's latest effort, "B'Day" stumbled so badly -- whatever happened to "Ring The Alarm", anyway??? And you simply cannot hear Gwen's latest effort, "The Sweet Escape", without hearing Fergie's influence -- and Gwen's not-so-subtle attempt to regain her lost ground -- all over the place. "Wind It Up" and "Yummy", anyone???

will.i.am told us with "Pump It" how much he loves to mine "oldies" [in that case, Dick Dale's "Misirlou"] for their potential sample value. On "The Dutchess" he folds part of Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It" [although, interestingly, not any part with Little Richard singing] into the brilliant track "Clumsy". It was precisely at the moment when we heard "TGCHI"'s signature horn-and-drum intro, and then again when the classic "she can't help it, the girl can't help it" vocals appeared, that we knew we were listening to something special. Later on in the record, will.i.am reworks The Temptations classic "Get Ready" into the brilliant "Here I Come".

The whole record just overflows with confidence. Fergie knew they had something special here. By the time you get around to the closing track [on the CD -- prepurchasers at the iTMS got 3 bonus tracks!!!] "Finally", you hear Fergie even confident enough to take a shot toward Christina's undisputed place at the top of the pop Diva pedestal, with a well-delivered piano-and-strings-backed torch song.

There are so many good tracks here, it's almost a shame to single out any for sampling. Below we've linked the afore-mentioned "Here I Come" as well as what may be our favorite song on "The Dutchess", the gorgeous love song "All That I Got (The Make Up Song)", which grabs its "money shot" hook from Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)".

Of course, we may be completely out our minds when we call "The Dutchess" one of the best of 2006. Feel free to savage us in the comments or in in your own blog.

Fergie - Here I Come [mp3, via YSI]
Fergie - Here I Come [mp3, via zShare]

Fergie - All That I Got (The Make Up Song) [mp3, via YSI]
Fergie - All That I Got (The Make Up Song) [mp3, via zShare]

Michael Jackson - P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (sample) [mp3, via YSI]
Michael Jackson - P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (sample) [mp3, via zShare]