Boasting the best album-length production of the year, will.i.am’s Songs About Girls is a tour de force of next-generation contemporary R&B, all of it devoted to girls — girls he wants, girls he wants back, girls who are gone, girls he’s glad are gone, and, of course, girls trying hard to make a living for their family as strippers. Although the trailer single, “I Got It from My Mama,” had threatened to become even more obnoxious and unescapable than Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” — replacing Fergie’s awkward come-ons with will.i.am’s clumsy rapping — it’s the lone note of pandering on this record. (Perhaps another should be guest Snoop Dogg lofting the word “donque” into the popular consciousness.) Recorded everywhere from Rio to The Record Plant, Songs About Girls percolates with more innovation, enthusiasm, and excitement than contemporary work by Pharrell, Kanye West, Mark Ronson, or anyone else remotely in the same league. Fortunately, will keeps the anthemic rapping to a minimum, instead sing-speaking or pleading plaintively behind a parade of filters and emoting rather than motivating. Musically, there’s all manner of technical wizardry on display, including vocoderized electronics, surprisingly acid-washed synth on “The Donque Song” (how long has it been since Snoop Dogg rapped over a 303, doctored or not), and “Get Your Money,” the latter of which may be the classic tale of a stripper with a heart of gold, but, powered by a swing-house M.A.N.D.Y. sample, should provide the requisite credibility to rehabilitate the man who unleashed “humps” on the populace.
– AllMusic
 
The set up for this record bodes well. will.i.am, real name William Adams, ventures from his Black Eyed Pea safety net and tests production skills that have spawned hits for the likes of The Pussycat Dolls and Justin Timberlake against his own vocal wares. Time to forget the divisive “My Humps” and let Adams sink or swim all on his own.
The album falls at the first hurdle with the lackadaisical “Over”. Using an Electric Light Orchestra sample, it is a pedestrian start, particularly when you square it up to the usual musical E numbers served up by Black Eyed Peas. Surprisingly, it sounds lazy and Adams sounds bored. From that moment, lift-off never really takes place and “Heartbreaker”, “Get Your Money” and “Impatient” (plucked fresh from Daft Punk’s refuse dump) all suffer the same fate.
Ultimately this album is as expansive as its title. Partially autobiographical, the record is based around one serious relationship endured by Adams and tales of other lost loves added for good measure. This equates to songs about inheriting looks (“I Got It From My Mama”) and those about backsides: The lamentable “The Donque Song” featuring Snoop Dogg’s most vacuous cameo for some time.
Supposedly its charm lies in its disco flavour, quirky electronic rhythms and will.i.am’s well-humoured rap flow, but this wore thin very quickly. With 17 tracks to wade through, it’s far too long and although “Invisible” and “Make It Funky” are palatable, only the most ardent will make it that far.
Hardcore Black Eyed Peas fans will consider this a useful form of escapism but casual users will be left disappointed. The soulless record would have benefited from Adams tapping up contributors from his extensive list of heavyweight contacts and adding some bite to its bark.
– BBC
 
The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am has kept plenty busy over the past few years, crafting diverse tracks for everyone from Justin Timberlake to Talib Kweli to Sergio Mendes. Given that some of the rapper-producer’s least profound work — bubblegum cheer-hop like Fergie’s ”Fergalicious” and the Peas’ own ”My Humps” — has also been his best-received, it’s no shocker that he would choose a similar direction for his own project. Indeed, the only surprise on Songs About Girls, will.i.am’s first solo effort on a major label, is that he has miraculously managed to transport us to an even flimsier dimension of vulgar dance music.
Certainly, pop these days isn’t ringing with complex examinations of romantic relationships. Still, by naming the album as he did, will.i.am draws attention to the fact that the ”girls” of whom he sings are, in his most generous estimation, gossamer ideals to be pined over after he breaks their hearts in unspecified ways. Primarily, though, they are steady-shimmying, modern-day Hottentot Venuses in need of badonkadonk appraisal. You may already be familiar with the ghastly, repetitive first single, ”I Got It From My Mama,” a shrill ode to ”beautiful buns” during which will.i.am offers this sensitive insight: ”If her mother real ugly, I guarantee she gone be ugly like her momma.” Songs also includes such blunt objects as ”The Donque Song,” another ass dedication, and the confused stripper anthem ”Get Your Money.” On the latter, will.i.am professes a liberal tolerance for the ”private dancer, bubble twister,” only to quickly add, ”Just be glad she ain’t your sister.”
These cuts are crude and unimaginative, and that’s not simple prudishness talking. In this post-Sir Mix-A-Lot age, even the most proper among us love a fun, edgy booty song. But will.i.am neuters that guilty pleasure with stiff drum programming, robotic guitar bursts, and vaporous synth melodies. (With so many house-music beats and watered-down electro elements, it’s quite possible the guy was aiming for retro and wound up dated.) When he’s not crooning come-ons in his merely adequate voice, will.i.am’s near nursery rhymes resound with clichés and tossed-off nonsense — even on ”S.O.S. (Mother Earth),” a sappy dirge to environmental issues clearly intended to be the one deep song. ”When an Eskimo gets bit by a mosquito,” insists will.i.am, ”somebody in Miami will get swept by a tsunami.” Sadly, that says as much about girls as anything else on this half-assed exercise in superficiality.
– Neil Drumming, EW