Reviews
Record Review:
BEP and The E.N.D bring the F-U-N.
(Originally posted at ReviewChicago.com)
Welcome. Welcome to the end. Do not panic. There is nothing to fear. Everything around you is changing. Nothing stays the same. This version of myself is not permanent. Tomorrow, I will be different. The energy never dies. Energy cannot be destryoed or created. It always is. And it always will be. This is the end. And the beginning. Forever. Infinite.
And so opens the Black Eyed Peas’ new record, The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies). The deep, warped voice is kind of what God would sound like if She were a black man. It would also be kind of trippy to hear if one happened to be high while listening. Just sayin’.
<lies>I’d like to begin this review by stating that I am going to be as objective as possible and try to separate myself from my bias toward will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo, and Fergie-Ferg’s Collective Ferosh Fiercenessness.</lies>
- This band is the Boom! Awesome Bomb.
Actually, one of the reasons why I LOVE this album is because dancing and partying take up big chunks in the pie chart of my life. The E.N.D. is a strong proponent of that lifestyle, so I don’t feel nearly as bad about myself.
- This is totally true. Just kidding. No, it is.
If I could party all night and sleep all day
And throw all of my problems away
My life would be easy
…is the chorus on a track called “Party All Night.” The command “party all the time” is repeated 44 times (I literally counted), and the song ends with Fergie saying in her most seductive voice: “I’m so tipsy. Iiii’m so tiiipsyy.“
Yes. Yes.
I also have a penchant for saying ridiculous things and being obscene, so that factors into why I am crazy about this record: “You can get electric shock from my flow/Bitches on my dick?/Oh no, they on my dildo.”
The E.N.D. is a dance album. It’s great to blast while getting ready to go out, the songs sound killer being played loud at a club, and its major theme is HAVE A GOOD TIME AND LIVE IT UP. The second disc even includes remixes of their past hits, and they, too, are Boom! Awesome Bomb.
The beats are super club-worthy with lots of repeating phrases: “I got a feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night, tonight’s gonna be a good night,” “I’m missing you, missing you,” Out of my head, out of my head,” “Electric city. Electric city,” “I want it now! I want it now!” “and of course Will.I.Am is shittin’ on y’all with the “BOOM! BOOM!” You’ll be able to sing along to most tracks before they’re even halfway through.
If you absolutely need to your music to be shrouded with deep, insightful lyrical content, this record may not be for you. HOWEVER, it is worth noting that BEP’s overall message with this record is positive, while also making accurate social commentary of the zeitgeist of the present era.
“We do so much instant analysis of everyday occurrences — Best Hour Ever! — that a recap of 10 years seems unnecessarily massive. Last week‘s news already seems like a rerun. Gary Condit? The AOL/Time Warner merger? Hanging chads? God, did we even have TV back then?” -Deadspin article on the decade; the 2000s, or (as they refer to it as) “The Aughts.”
The column discusses how we’re approaching the end of the decade, but looking back, it seems quite uneventful, and most things cloud in comparison to 9/11. I must disagree with the declaration; the 2000s were the birth and development of the “Now Generation.” And in the song by that title, it sums up the decade. “Just ask Barack who brought the hope. It was the NOW Generation.”
Myspace in your space
Facebook is a new place
Dip divin’ socializin’
I’ll be out in cyber space
Google is my professor
Wikipedia checker
Checkin my account
Loggin in and loggin out
Baby I want it..NOW!
-“Generation Now”
The second to last track, “One Tribe,” takes on a slightly more insightful topic–unity and peace. Living in this era of fear, fighting, selfishness and greed has taken its toll, and is so unnecessary. Coming together makes life so much better.
It’s all one blood, don’t care about your face
The color of your eye or the tone of your skin
Don’t care where you are don’t care where you been…
I don’t need no leader
That’s gonna force feed a
Concept that make me think I need to
Fear my brother and fear my sister
And shoot my neighbor
Or my big missile..
Let’s cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil that they feed ya
Remember that we’re one people
Preach it, Will.I.Am. Can I be a member of the Church of Peas?
A lot of The E.N.D. is really Boom! Hilariousness Bomb. There are classic lines: “You make me wait, I whup your ass.” In “Now Generation,” Fergie belts out “I want it now!” over and over, just like Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, British accent and everything. She doesn’t yell like a Brit through the entire song (just for a verse), but it’s funny as hell.
In “Out Of My Head,” Fergie stops the music halfway though. “Hold up, hold up, hold up!” she says. “How does the bridge go? Ah, I think I drink too much. Oh, wait I know it. Okay okay. HERE WE GO!” and the funky bass groove resumes as Fergie belts:
I’m stepping out of here
Cause where I’m going
I don’t know
I’m stepping out of here
Cause where I’m going
Is out of my head
You know what I mean when I say she “belts,” right? Fergie’s belting is a G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S version of yelling. Think of the argument in the middle of the song “Shut Up” from Elephunk, their 2003 Grammy-winning record. Fergie has a pretty singing voice, but she also knows how to bring it from the gut. She’s a great vocalist, and uses her instrument in so many ways. In “Electric City,” a track with heavy Jamaican dance hall beat influence, she takes on a persona akin to Lady Saw. “Meet Me Halfway” has a super-dancey 80s feel to it, and the chorus’ chord progression sounds a lot like part of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.”
This record is not one that starts out hot and fades toward the end. EACH track is fun in its own way; all unique, spanning different styles of pop/hip-hop/funk. Fact: It’s probably impossible NOT move when you’re in the general listening vicinity of one of these songs.
More notable lines:
“You don’t want to have sex with me? Then why you keep texting me?/Cause if I’m callin’ at 2 in the morning, it only means one thing, baby.”
“Y’all niggas wanna talk shit. Why don’t you put it on a blog? Rockin like this is my job.”
“I’m the thriller of Manila in the Filipino.”
And of course, my current favorite is “I Gotta Feeling,” which is the second single rocking the airwaves. The chorus was my Facebook status a couple days ago because it is the STORY OF MY LIFE:
Tonight’s the night! Let’s live it up! I got my money! Let’s spend it up! Go out and smash it! Like oh my God! Jump off that sofa! Let’s get up! Fill up my cup! Mazel tov! Look at her dancing! Just take it off! Let’s paint the town! We’ll shut it down! Let’s burn the roof! And then we’ll do it again.
They even throw in a “la chaim.”
Really, the Black Eyed Peas are on to something here. A friend of mine was at my place as I was listening to this record, and in response to the lyrics from “I Gotta Feeling” and “Party All The Time” lamented, “That’s not very realistic. Life isn’t that easy. ”
Are you kidding me? Life REALLY is that simple. You don’t need to be a millionaire to HAVE FUN. What’s the use in getting caught up in the Swine Flu Fear Mongering or the nightly reports on murders and the rising rates of unemployment? 9% of the country is unemployed? Well, that means 91% OF THE POPULATION IS EMPLOYED. Chew on that. [Did I do the math correctly? Numbers aren't my bag.]
People say to “live each day like it’s your last, and live in the present moment.” Who can’t benefit from a healthy dosage of fun times making memories, laughing, drinking copiously, and letting your cares go as you dance with a group of the people you love? Maybe one shouldn’t do it EVERY DAY (but trust you me, it IS doable…ahem), but the point is to enjoy your life because we only have one, and the days are numbered.
One day very soon, the Black Eyed Peas WILL be my BFFs. They sound exactly like all my current friends are, anyway. Seriously- watch the video for “I Gotta Feeling.” Tell me that everything that happens in this video isn’t what your nights out look like: It has everything from the getting ready in the vanity, to the dancing in the dark with your arms in the air, to the drunken stumbling around the streets at 5 a.m., falling over laughing with your friends.
Music Videos - Video Playlists - New Music
There are plenty of Black Eyed Peas fans from the pre-Fergie days who are all, “Eff that fugly bitch! They were SO much better before they went ‘mainstream.’” Doesn’t that get old? It happens a lot (Read: Incubus, Fall Out Boy, No Doubt) but at the end of the day, you make the decision to accept and at least give chances to the art that is created as bands evolve over the years. And I know a lot of fans fell off after the ridiculous “My Humps,” but you can’t deny that that song was CONSTANTLY IN YOUR HEAD.
“Easy come, easy go; now we on top.” I mean, can you really argue with that?
L’chaim! To life!
GET THIS RECORD NOW.
p.s. Shame on Perez Hilton for getting into it with Will and Fergie. DRAMZ!
