Black Eyes Peas: The Beginning – review

What is The Beginning "about"? Let will.i.am explain: "It's about being experimental and playing around with sick, crazy beats. What he means is that the Black Eyed Peas have created an album similar to 2009's enormously successful The END, but with more Auto-Tune and less input from the wonderful Fergie. It's a densely packed, busy record – getting to grips with all the samples and clubby beats takes dedicated listening. As examples of upscale hip-pop you won't mind hearing endlessly on the radio, most of the songs hit the mark – even Fashion Beats, with its superfluous verse in French. The least worthy thing here is the single, The Time (Dirty Bit), which excavates the 1987 hit (I've Had) the Time of My Life and drapes it in Casio keyboard effects for an easy shot at the Top 10. It's modish to disparage the Peas, but consistently coming up with stuff that's this infectious is harder than it looks.