I’m not a fan of the Black Eyed Peas. Over the past 5–7 years I’ve developed a strong pimp hand against their music. With the advent of Fergie (a mutt I can’t stand), my feelings have been that her involvement has turned the once alternative hipsters into tween-aimed ‘plain old peas’ who make songs about nothing. Unfortunately I fell in love with ‘I Gotta Feeling’, which is how I found myself listening to their new album The E.N.D. If you were thinking you might hear some of the Peas’ of old that’s not the case. It’s still comparatively pop, now with a definite electro/autotune fuse, seemingly there to accommodate their acronym for an album name, The Energy. Never. Dies.
In terms of lyrical content, most of the tracks on this album are sadly lacking. Repetition is the Peas’ best friend (see Track 1—‘Boom Boom Pow’, Track 4—‘Imma be’ and Track 9—‘Party all the time’). Not only is there the repetition of lyrics, but repetition in the form of sampling previous tracks on the same album (Track 9—‘Party All the Time’ samples part of the hook from Track 5—‘I Gotta Feeling’). The Peas also seem to have taken a class at The Dream’s school of writing, filling out their choruses by elongating the end of words:
“And it’s true girl/
you make me feel ali-i-i-ive/
you make me feel ali-i-i-ive/
you make me feel ali-i-i-ive/
You make me feel al — i —- i —- i —- ive”
As far as production goes, the beats are better. Will. i. am’s work gets the group (if you can call it that) by with more rappers singing to auto tune and over-sung hooks. Track 10—‘Out of my Head’ and Track 11—‘Showdown’, have the best beats to dance to.
Funnily enough, by the time I had finished listening to this album, I didn’t like ‘I Gotta Feeling’ anymore and rather enjoyed Track 6—‘Alive’. The melody had me from the beginning, however, the song sounds like one of those ‘love-got-me-thankin-and here-is-its-result’ tracks from the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack. So that’s it. I’m in two minds. Actually no, I’m not. This album wasn’t enough to weaken my pimp hand. The beats I can bear. But as long as I have to listen to Fergie, I can’t forgive.