The E.N.D [Black Eyes Peas - 5th Studio Album] (SPECIAL REVIEW)

Tracklisting

DISC ONE
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

DISC TWO
1) Where Ya Wanna Go
2) Simple Little Melody
3) Mare
4) Don’t Bring Me Down
5) Pump It Harder (“Pump It” Remix)
6) Let’s Get Restarted (“Let’s Get Retarded” Remix)
7) Shut the Phunk Up (“Shut Up” Knee Deep Remix)
8) That’s The Joint (Joints & Jams Remix)
9) Another Weekend (featuring Esthero) (“Weekend” remix)
10) Don’t Phunk Around (“Don’t Phunk With My Heart” Chicago House Remix)

The E.N.D is the fifth studio album from the Black Eyed Peas. The title is an acronym of “The Energy Never Dies”, and according to band member will.i.am, the album follows the concept that a regular album no longer exists: Due to the nature of iTunes and the ease in which you can get individual songs now, he claims that they plan to make it a sort of diary of musical progression, and keep adding to it in the future. It is also the first album to make a heavy use of the synthesizer as the main instrument instead of going for mainstream R&B-styled music. The deluxe edition came with a second CD that contained four more original tracks, with the last six being remixes of previously released songs from other albums. It also had two singles: Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling, with Meet Me Halfway, Alive and Imma Be being released as digital singles prior to release as well. It managed to reach #2 on the Oricon album charts (despite not being a Japanese album) and #1 on the Oricon international charts. Other chart placements are not yet known. The album was released worldwide between the 3rd and 16th of June, 2009.

First off, I have one word to describe the Deluxe edition of the album: LONG. Secondly, I have one word to describe the entire album: Fresh. It’s always nice to see artists experiment and reach out beyond their usual predefined genre of music, and it’s even better when that artist exceeds in keeping up with their usual standards. The album does have the usual misses throughout, but they manage to mix their usual style of music with this electronic experimental nature to make an interesting and cohesive album.

I’ll be completely honest, something like this was the last thing I expected from a band like the Black Eyed Peas. However, as soon as I heard Boom Boom Pow: in all of its raw, hook-lacking nature; I knew that they were onto something here, because it managed to be extremely catchy while being radically different. (Although, Fergie’s mention of them “chickens jacking my style” always manages to crack me up, so that might have some part in it.) Then, as the digital singles started coming out, I knew they had the ability to extend this over an album successfully: Alive, Meet Me Halfway and I Gotta Feeling are all interesting and unique tracks, although Imma Be was a little less fantastic for me. I will say, I don’t like how overly extended that new talking intro for Boom Boom Pow is, and I usually skip straight to the actual song because of that (which is annoying, since they’re both one track), but it’s still a good song.

The album tracks manage to catch your interest, as well. For some reason, it’s always the humorous tracks that make me love BEP, and Out of my Head is no exception: It’s a playful, slapstick song sung almost entirely by Fergie that is pretty much just about drinking. She isn’t exactly the best singer, but I will say, she knows how to make a song humorous and interesting at the same time. One Tribe is also an interesting track, with the theme of the world getting amnesia to overcome our issues being a rather well thought-out, if not slightly silly, theme to write a song about.

The bonus tracks on the second disc, however, are less inspiringly interesting. The only good songs here are Mare, the majorly Filipino song about ladies and dancing, and the That’s The Joint remix present on here. (Don’t Bring Me Down is another good one, actually, so make that three.) The rest is pretty much nothing of note, though fans of those particular songs should take a listen. The album itself isn’t exactly perfect, either: Tracks like Ring-A-Ling (Nonsensical without the humor, and just plain annoying musically) and Showdown (A rather predictable, annoyingly plain attempt at music) tend to bring the album down in places, and for being an experimental synth album, there isn’t exactly as much as one would expect, which could be a downside for those coming here for that style of music.

I will say one thing, though: The album is consistent. Not including the bonus second disc, the album has tremendous flow, and all of the tracks work well with those around them due to the similar, united sound they all have. The only real hitch is a good track flowing into a bad track (Missing You to Ring-A-Ling, for example), but their similar synth theme makes the transition itself smooth either way. The transition between the two discs itself is even passable: Where Ya Wanna Go, however, opens with a rather fragile piano solo, so going from the synth-heavy, lyrically light Rockin To The Beat to it isn’t exactly 100% smooth. However, the acoustic guitar at the end of Rockin To The Beat helps lighten the transition, and the fact that Where Ya Wanna Go is alsoa  synth-heavy song after the piano wears off works in its favor, as well. That’s The Joint tends to stand out like a sore thumb between two synthed R&B songs, as it’s pretty much a high-energy Lounge-meets-R&B song, so it’s a bit of a rocky ride. It depends on whether you like good flow between your remixes whether this’ll bother you or not.

Do I think they’re going to use this style again? Not really. Do I hope they’ll use this style again? Yes, indeed. While I was a huge fan of their last album, Monkey Business, I quickly outgrew it when I started getting into techno-pop and, well, J-Pop in general. Now that the Black Eyed Peas are experimenting with some riskier synths, they appeal to me on a whole new level once again. Plus, they pulled it off in a very good manner, so what’s not to like? The only thing I have against it is that it’s VERY LONG WINDED, so even I can’t help but get bored by the time I’m almost at the end of the first disc.

Album Score
B+

Favorite Tracks
1) Out Of My Head
2) Meet Me Halfway
3) Alive
4) One Tribe
5) Mare
6) Boom Boom Pow
7) That’s The Joint (Joints & Jams Remix)
8) Don’t Bring Me Down
9) Rockin To The Beat
10) Electric City

Experimentation is always a risky business when it comes to music. When it works out well, it’s definitely easy to notice and appreciate. Thankfully, this worked out well, and it’s only helped raise my interest in the Black Eyed Peas once again. If they were to go back to their older, purer R&B days, I’d probably be a little less interested, but looking in the now, The E.N.D was a very good thing. Let’s just hope this isn’t the E.N.D (Oh, how punny of me. *shot*) of their humorous tracks, because they always make the album for me. NICE WORK, PEAS~ Don’t stop it now.

(NOTE: It was a long album, so I chose 10 favorite tracks instead of 5. I tend to raise the number depending on the tracklisting, and 10 seems feasible for a 25 track album when I always choose 5 for 10-15 track albums.)