Nur Aqilah
The Black Eyed Peas released their fifth studio album on June 9, with “Boom Boom Pow” rocking the world’s music charts way before the album even went on sale. Fans were hooked to the hit single that continuously topped the charts for 12 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.
While that was an undeniable hit, many may find that their latest album, The E.N.D, sounds a bit too futuristic and gets monotonous after a while as the beats are the same throughout the whole song.
And that wasn’t all that was boring. The lyrics for most of the songs like “Imma Be” (“Imma be, Imma be, Imma be…” countless times and began to sound like “I’m a bee” after a while) and “Now Generation” (“We are the now generation, we are the generation now. This is the now generation, this is the generation now…”) are irritatingly repetitive. To add to that droning effect, the vocals were also “auto-tuned”, meaning that synthesizers are used to tweak the voices. So unfortunately, dear Fergie’s powerful singing wasn’t given the chance to shine, unlike in the previous albums such as Monkey Business and Elephunk.
Despite the vocals being tampered with and the heavy use of electronic sounds, songs like “Boom Boom Pow” did manage to get me listening to it because like it or not, the song sure gets you moving to its beats. Other songs that scored include “Rock That Body”, “I Gotta Feeling” (their second single) and “Imma Be”.
Overall, the 15-track album doesn’t sound much like it came from the Black Eyed Peas we know, as they seem to have left hip-hop behind. Well songs like “Imma Be” still have the hip-hop feel, but in this album, they sounded more electronic with club beats and the songs have an ‘80s feel to it. An example would be the song “Meet Me Halfway”, which sounded like Earth Wind Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland” and the beats to “Rockin’ To The Beat” reminded me of Michael Jackson. You can’t help but feel nostalgic listening to this album.
The E.N.D surely spells an end of the Black Eyed Peas for me because it failed to get me hooked. If anything, listening to the same beats over and over was exhausting. They sounded like they were trying too hard to sound polished and up to date with the popularity of the club and techno scene. The songs may be fine at parties but these aren’t the kind of songs that I’d want to listen to over and over again on my mp3 player.
Track listing:
1. Boom Boom Pow
2. Rock That Body
3. Meet Me Halfway
4. Imma Be
5. I Gotta Feeling
6. Alive
7. Missing You
8. Ring-A-Ling
9. Party All The Time
10. Out Of My Head
11. Electric City
12. Showdown
13. Now Generation
14. One Tribe
15. Rockin’ To The Beat