Black Eyed Peas come back with The Beginning

Since they've reached ‘The E.N.D.", what comes next for platinum selling artists the Black Eyed Peas? "The Beginning",their latest album, is a mixture of futuristic beats, house influences; and a step back from any of their previous albums. "The E.N.D." was a massive success for the group earning them four hit singles. While other artists who reach this amount of commercial success might wait a longer period of time in between records, it's as though the Peas were in a rush to get this album out.

Artists like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Flo Rida have all mastered sampling previous mega hits into their own songs. The Black Eyed Peas have attempted yet failed to achieve this task.

"The Time", the latest single from the group, takes the classic song from the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, and transforms it into what can only be described as an electro mess.

The rest of the album follows the single's formula of electro beats, heavy auto-tune, and a few borrowed samples.

"XOXOXO" is the album's catchiest track although it also has the most nonsensical lyrics, ("Girl let's tangle up like a pretzel. Girl you stole my heart like a klepto. Butterflies in my stomach need pepto").

"Someday", a track where group member Appl de Ap talks about leaving his family in the Philippines and following his dreams, is one of the more meaningful songs on the album.

By the album's last track, "Play it Loud", Will. I. Am. sings "I pledge allegiance to rhythm and sound." Listening to the album straight through, the only thing you'd like him to pledge by this point is silence.

Elton John recently told Rolling Stone, "Look at the quality of songs now and ask if they will be classics. The answer for 99 percent of them is absolutely not." Judging from ‘The Beginning', the Black Eyed Peas are not an exception to the percent.