Black Eyed Peas – Waiting for 'The E.N.D.' to end

When I first approached this album, I approached with an openmind, hoping that the Black Eyed Peas might have strayed away from the sheer awfulness of their previous albums, Elephunk and Monkey Business. Almost immediately, it became apparent that this album was something was different altogether. It seems as if beatboxing and simple, natural rythms have been replaced with samplings, electronic beats and synthesizers. many effects have also been used to alter the vocals of the band members. These include the robotic auto-tuning ‘chipmunking’ [where the pitch is raised], and the occasional use of the talkbox.

Fergie and Will.i.am have both proven themselves to be decent singers, both with a decent vocal range. All of their talent seems to have been tossed aside for this album, where vocal effects are overused to the point that some songs become unlistenable. ‘Missing You’ has very high pitched, tedious singing, backed by a horribly boring electronic beat. ‘I Gotta Feeling’, easily the most listenable song here, overuses auto tuning and eventually becomes a chore to listen to.

Many of the beats found here prove to be slightly catchy, in their own simple way. Like much of the album, the catchiness corrodes at an almost shocking rate, and quickly turns to annoying and repetitive. ‘Ring-a-ling’ has a horrendous opening keyboard line that manages to sound like a very high pitched ringtone. The deep bass undertones found on previous albums are mostly discarded here, making much of the music sound flat and uninteresting.

The only positive characteristic to be found here is in the catchiness. ‘Imma Be’ and ‘I Gotta Feeling’ both manage to quite infectious, despite their annoying electronic beats and vocals. As mentioned earlier, several of the electronic samplings and beats appear catchy at first, before quickly descending into their spiral of tediousness.

The END is a very unsuccessful attempt by the Black Eyed Peas to make a motivational, positive album. Most of the songs are repetitive, and not only boring, but annoying as well. The overuse of vocal and electronic effects helps take away any positive sides to the music.

Sputnik Music

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Tagged as: beatbox, Black Eyed Peas, chipmunk, electronic music, elephunk, Fergie, i gotta feeling, imma bee, monkey business, talkbox, the end, Will i am