After topping the charts in 2009 with their fifth album, “The E.N.D.,” the Black Eyed Peas will follow up that success with Tuesday’s release of “The Beginning.”
The E.N.D., which sold 2.8 million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan, featured smash commercial hits like “Boom Boom Pow,” “Imma Be” and “I Got a Feeling.”
“The Beginning” features songs from a similar musical influence with more of a night club feel.
Drafted during the end of touring for The “E.N.D.,” the Black Eyed Peas started work on their sixth album in September 2009. Much of the inspiration for the album and its name came from the group’s idea that the they are a group that pushes new sounds and technologies. This album is an analogy for their music being new, or, the beginning of new, modern sounds.
Helping to represent this outlook is the first single off the album, “The Time (The Dirty Bit)” which was released Oct. 22. The song samples the 1987 hit “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” which was featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing.” The band’s use of technology is portrayed in the transformation of the poppy original into a beat with pulses and pumps mixed over fitting lyrics that reference the party music the Peas have come to embody.
A video for “The Time (The Dirty Bit)” was released on Nov. 24 and already has more than 5 million views on YouTube.
Helping to represent the theme of the album, the cover for “The Beginning” features will.i.am, Fergie, Taboo and apl.de.ap as pixilated, computerized versions of themselves, which implies the band’s use of technology meshed into their individual sounds.
The Peas have been a group whose commercial success and musical respect can be best described as a teetering scale. Starting in the ’90s, the Black Eyed Peas received critical acclaim on their first two albums, “Behind the Front” and “Bridging the Gap,” both of which displayed raw and original hip-hop sounds. In 2003, the band departed from these sounds into more mainstream music with the addition of Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson for their third album, “Elephunk.”
Although many critics accused the band of selling out, the Black Eyed Peas’ new sound translated easily into commercial success. Since that decision, the group has sold an estimated 27 million records worldwide and is only one of 11 groups to have held the number one and two spots at the same time on the Billboard Hot 100.
According to reviews, “The Beginning” once again features synthesized, pulsating beats mixed with auto-tuned lyrics. But, unlike “The E.N.D.,” reviewers appear to believe that the songs off “The Beginning” don’t carry as much of the repetitive sounds that frustrated non-commercially engaged listeners in 2009, since most songs are described as hitting the mark.
Given the current radio climate of a few songs being repeatedly overplayed, the Black Eyed Peas’ additions from their new album are ones that most listeners won’t mind hearing a couple hundred times.
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