"Songs About Girls" won't sway naysayers. The single "I Got it from My Mama" is little more than "My Humps II" with lines like "So be a good girl and thank your mama/She made you steamin' like a sauna" and "The Donque Song," featuring Snoop Dogg, is about, well, a--. Other songs lament failed relationships ("Over," which gets its hook from Electric Light Orchestra's "It's Over"), more songs celebrate the female physique ("Get Your Money") and "S.O.S. (Mother Nature)" is a token song about global warming in which will.i.am gets his Al Gore groove on. Presumably, this song fits the album's theme, if one assumes Mother Nature is a girl all grown up.

What makes "Songs About Girls" such a guilty pleasure is that will.i.am dials back on the frantic arrangements and opts for a more stylish production. Singing jostles for elbow room with rapping. Snoop Dogg is the only guest rapper. The CD is just barely a hip-hop/rap album and owes considerably more to the dance floor with house grooves popping all over the place. The lounge-oriented funk jam "Impatient" could have wandered in off a Jamiroquai CD, for instance.

Will.i.am could still stand to prune the 15-track album judiciously; the music runs out of ideas and steam around track nine. But an abundance of creamy melodies, smooth production and plump beats makes spending some time chasing these "Girls" an irresistible pursuit.