Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Dec 7, 2010The Peas may not have dramatically outdone themselves this time, but they've succeeded at keeping the good times rolling yet again.
-
Dec 7, 2010Peas leader will.i.am mixes up house and disco beats, Chic and Slick Rick samples, wonky Moog hooks, crunchy guitars, and '70s funk bass into one of the year's wildest sonic stews.
-
Dec 7, 2010While the title of the Peas' newest album, "The Beginning," might suggest a retreat from this everything-to-everyone agenda, it's everything but.
-
Jan 10, 2011Although the overall plot of the album is sparse, it's hard to deny the enjoyment it can bring to you. If you know what to expect when you hear it, you can take The Beginning for what it is: a feel good album.
-
Dec 7, 2010You can probably imagine what it sounds like: minimalist drum machine beats, techno-lifted synth pulses, plinky keyboard hooks, retro-fitted hip-hop callbacks, pitch-shifted vocals, and songs that chain your brain to the furnace and beat you over the head with their cursed affability.
-
Dec 7, 2010This much serotonin in four humans can only mean they'll get carried away all over the place, and Beginning bubbles with the kind of slobbering excess that drives Peas haters bonkers.
-
Dec 7, 2010It's modish to disparage the Peas, but consistently coming up with stuff that's this infectious is harder than it looks.
-
Dec 7, 2010It's a much lesser record than "The E.N.D.," and yet it isn't boring, even when the echoes of old songs are more than echoes.
-
Dec 16, 2010It's an odd sort of talent, making joyless slogs out of music that is supposed to be fun and exuberant, but The Beginning is at its core a shrine to forced joviality, and that's no fun at all.
-
Dec 7, 2010Consider it a musical Snuggie for tottering Valley party girls--it will feel marvelous in the cold, drunken and lonely hours of the night.
-
Jan 13, 2011Simply put, this album suffers from Beyonce syndrome--it does nothing to further the group's catalogue. Last time around, the Black Eyed Peas were exploring new territory, and the results were contagious. Now, it seems as though the group, particularly will.i.am, is stuck on auto-pilot.
-
Dec 14, 2010Like the Double Down monstrosity, the first bite is an odd mix of tasty and disgusting, but by the end of it you just feel ill and ashamed.
-
Dec 7, 2010As on their last two LPs, it's heavily reliant on nightclub anthems and will.i.am's throwback rapping, alongside Auto-Tune harmonies and waves of synth
-
Dec 7, 2010The Beginning is a depressing listen, not because the music's that bad, but because it implies that even the most successful pop producer on the planet can't afford to indulge in anything that might be construed as intelligent or interesting, lest the masses run away screaming in terror.
-
Dec 7, 2010The Beginning, the Black Eyed Peas's sixth and least original album yet, is the sound of the pigs' blood dumped on Carrie White's head congealing into a sticky, hardened scab of forced good times.
-
Dec 7, 2010The vocals are slathered in Auto-Tune (didn't Jay Z proclaim Auto Tune dead once already?). The rhymes are simplistic ("You're the gas in my car, you're my petrol/You and I go way back, retro") or silly ("This is the original, this has no identical"–-really?). And the music's reliance on rhythmic and lyrical repetition (as opposed to progression and surprise) becomes wearying.
-
Dec 21, 2010Unforgivably bad.
-
Dec 7, 2010If The Black Eyed Peas want to sing, dance and rap about having good nights and getting laid, that's fine; but expecting a discerning audience to buy this bottle-rocket crap as an album is pure delusion. If they're truly trying to achieve more, The Beginning is a pretty awful start.
-
Dec 7, 2010The Beginning's shameless hit-mongering and MOR club stance gives this set about as much oomph as Cher's Believe.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 39 out of 109
-
Mixed: 31 out of 109
-
Negative: 39 out of 109
-
Dec 1, 2010
-
Dec 2, 2010
-
Dec 8, 2010