Friday Flop: The Beginning – The Black Eyed Peas
Posted on December 10, 2010 by Poppy in Featured, Friday Flops, Media
The Beginning - The Black Eyed Peas hit the e-shelf November 30, 2010
The Beginning is the newly released fourth album to The Black Eyed Peas‘s mid-2009 album The E.N.D. I am a big Black Eyed Peas fan so I have been anxiously awaiting this new album. Does it live up to my own hype? The best I can say about it is that the album art is pretty! Here’s the worst I can say about it:
I feel like I’m sipping a cup of hot tea with lemon at T-Pain‘s kitchen table. Translation: Weak beats with auto-tune up the yin-yang! It honestly feels like BEP were contractually obligated to show up to the studio and record an album so they did, but there’s no passion behind most of it. I know will.i.am can sing, I’ve heard him in live recordings, so all this auto-tuning to “correct the pitch” is just for effect and it doesn’t work for me.
I look to BEP to wake me up, get me off my feet, and DANCE, but this album puts me to sleep with its trance beats and tired lyrics. We’re talking about haters again? Who cares about the haters, you guys are world famous! Let’s get some fresh material into your bellies! Also, what’s up with the electronic drum machine and tracks I danced to in clubs back in the 90s? If this is a retro album then it’s bordering on perfect, but it’s supposed to be cutting edge and bring us to the future of hip hop, not bring us back 20 years.
Fergie is singing a lot less on this album than on The E.N.D. I guess it was will.i.am‘s turn to take the lead. When she does get a chance to sing Fergie goes from singing in a babydoll voice in Just Can’t Get Enough to some Joan Jett wannabe voice in The Situation. I appreciate that she tries to present a versatile singing style and range for us throughout the album, but it’s not delivered well enough for me to enjoy it.
Speaking of Just Can’t Get Enough, it seems to be named after the Depeche Mode song of the same name, but its beat and the note pattern of the lyrics sound just like Cupid’s Chokehold (Take a Look at My Girlfriend) by Gym Class Heroes, which was a big hit in 2006! So, is BEP out of hits and now has to rip off other artists??
Do It Like This is a decent, although slow, song but it reminds me of M.I.A.‘s song Bird Flu which was cutting edge back in 2007!
The one song that sounds like any generic dance song but will be HUGE is Don’t Stop the Party. Its lyrics claim the song has “no identical” and goes hard core on rapping words with a great dance beat. Classic BEP fist pumping formula for the WIN! Even this song has music clips from the 90s in it, but the song is good enough to forgive them for it.
XOXOXO will also definitely be big because you actually hear will.i.am‘s voice and he’s patterning his vocals the same as Boom Boom Pow, which was the best song off The E.N.D. but again, it’s another song that’s too close to a classic. This time: Pete Townsend‘s Let My Love Open the Door (To Your Heart), recorded in 1980. 1980!
The first song of the album is The Time, a remixed semi-remake of the Dirty Dancing song (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life. I’m not sure whose idea it was to let BEP cover it, but poor Patrick Swayze is spinning in his grave while I dance to this dirty grinding dance song. Two thumbs up for this one.
The Beginning has three great hits for certain, but that’s out of 15 songs on the deluxe album, so that’s not a great track record. I bet this entire album would be better if sped up just a tiny little bit. I’m waiting anxiously to see what the club DJs can do to remix these songs into something hot. For now, I’ll go back to listening to The E.N.D. Better luck next album, Black Eyed Peas. And next time please give proper credit in the liner notes to ALL songs that heavily inspired you. Thanks!
If you still want to buy this album, or at least the songs I liked, visit iTunes or Amazon.
Note: My review is based on the Deluxe Version of The Beginning because why would I only review half of what an artist intended me to? 
Album photo credit: iTunes
Feature photo credit: Sarah Ackerman
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Posted on December 10, 2010 by Poppy in Featured, Friday Flops, Media
I actually like “The Time.” Of course it’s the only song from this album that I’ve heard, but it’s been growing on me.
@Megan G., The Time is a hot track. The first time I heard the first few bars was on Oprah’s first Favorite Things show this season then they went into Little Drummer Boy and I just thought it was a tribute or goof or something. But hearing the whole song makes me want to dance. I don’t dance, lack of hip-to-foot coordination, but I wANNa.
Oh boo!
I had been waiting for this to come out, I even liked the “Dirty Bit” track thinking it was just a club mix, but if the rest of the album is like that too, I may just skip buying this one.
@Blondefabulous, Dirty Bit is The Time, so yes, that song is good! I definitely recommend The Time (Dirty Bit), XOXOXO, and Don’t Stop the Party. Worth $2.98 (or, I guess it’d be $1.29 x 3 on iTunes).
@Poppy, ($2.97, even!)
Holy shit, Poppy. This is a phenomenal review.
I know this is not about the album – but you are really, really good at this.
@Miss Britt, thank you.
Rarely have I agreed with you, Poppy, so hard – And I haven’t even heard the album.
@Creature SH, as in you hate The Black Eyed Peas? I need more to go from.
@Creature SH, oh, *snort*, I read that as “rarely have I _disagreed_ with you … so hard”. Ok, you go ahead and agree with me, thank you.
That Boom Boom Pow song made me want to kill the whole band. Painfully. Or at least cut out their tongues.
@Sybil Law, I’m pretty certain, based on previous conversations, that you and I don’t have the same music taste.
Remind me to hire a bodyguard if I know will.i.am is going to be in the same building with you. 
@Poppy, Except for They Might Be Giants, because who doesn’t love them?!