The Black Eyed Peas seem to be in the throes of an identity crisis. Their fifth album (the third with Fergie) is a sleek, minimalist and rather dark affair that sounds more like the wasted, exhausted wee hours of the morning after than the big, over-the-top, glam party they usually throw. Don't get us wrong, though. There are still plenty of party-oriented anthems on here; this is the Black Eyed Peas, after all. Their rhymes are often overly simplistic and their flow can be a little rough, but that is not the point. The point is to have fun -- to make hip-hop and pop a big, old, sometimes silly but always jumping good time.
Which is precisely what's so weird about The E.N.D.: even the tracks that seem most explicitly designed for getting stupid and having a good time are restrained. "Imma Be," for instance, is one of the album's most entertaining tracks; about 2 minutes and 30 seconds in, the pace doubles and we get a whiff of the Peas' old phunk. Until that point, however, the song is slow and driven by a kind of G-rated swagger that is far removed from the Peas' usual (literally) back-flipping energy. Even "Party All the Time" -- which makes plans to mack models and pop bottles -- just sounds a little depressed: "If I could party all night and sleep all day/ And throw all of my problems away/ My life would be easy," sings Will.i.am in an almost plaintive, Auto-Tuned falsetto.
That Auto-Tuned falsetto may be contributing to the Peas' sonic depression; at the very least, it's another example of the identity crisis we suspect. Here's the thing: there is practically no rapping on The E.N.D. -- and what little there is is mostly executed by Fergie. Taboo and Apl are practically M.I.A. (mourning the loss of the time they've been given on the last couple albums to do their own thing -- especially Apl's Tagalog material). And most of the album is a collection of Auto-Tuned singing (and a lot of that is done by Will). I mean, can we even call them a hip-hop crew anymore?
Obviously the Peas are riding a trend here -- another thing they do very well, if always just a little behind its curve (Kanye, of course, has already beat them to the depressed, rapper-turned-singer punch. And don't get me started on the irony that is building a "futuristic" song around Auto-Tune -- a technology everyone is using right now -- in order to say "I'm so 3008/ You're so two-thousand and late.") And maybe a desire to get onboard the minimalist, robotic express is all that's going on here. They do somehow still make it all work: Fergie does an excellent '80s dance-pop diva impression (see "Missing You"). And I dig the electro Bo Diddley beat on "Electric City" -- a kind of dubbish "We Built this City" (yep, Starship) that should be totally embarrassing (Fergie + a slight Jamaican patois? Yikes!) but is just a lot of fun.
Which brings us to another thing the Peas are really good at: making the silly and (let's be honest here) sometimes downright dumb infectious and listenable. "My Humps" is the classic case in point, of course, but "Boom Boom Pow" is another great example. And so even though all this sleek, minimalist, futuristic automaton stuff is, really, pretty silly, the Peas still make it fun -- and almost campy (even the downer tracks sound theatrical in the Peas' hands). We just hope they feel better and perk up soon.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
I do agree but to me this album sounded more like their first and secound. But this time with Fergie and if you get the Target version which comes with a secound disc you will hear the party B.E.P. tracks.