Justin Timberlake anyone?? (Behind The Front - Black Eyed Peas)

Name: loozylu

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Product:	Behind The Front - Black Eyed Peas
Date:	07/05/04 (487 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: loads of diverse sounds

Disadvantages: one bad track

'Where is the Love’ is stuck in my head having just been listening to it... its possibly one of the most over-played songs on the album on my cd player, and at the moment, it is my favourite cd. Therefore... here comes another review of an album.....

I had only heard of the group when I heard their number one single 'where is the love?' so I was surprised to find out that they had been around since 2000. They finally became a bit more mainstream when they decided to seek the help of Justin Timberlake - apparently he is sexy and everyone loves him.... I cant see it personally, he's just a michael jackson wanna-be-but-neva-gonna-be. Anyway, it did the trick and now everyone knows who they are... and if you dont..... then quite blatantly you have been living in a cave for the last 6 months...

The band was formed in 1989, when the original two members - Will I. Am and Apl. De Ap - met at school. After getting not very far not very quickly, they met the soon-to-become-third-member called Taboo in 1995, when they named the group The Black Eyed Peas. They then got a recording contract with Interscope Records in 1995, and finally released their first album three years later. Phew. However, no one really knew who they were and no one really bought their record... ditto for release numero dos. Then in 2001 they got a new member, a woman called Fergie and their third album was born, and like a glittering shooting star shot straight to the top... Girl Power.

This third album is called ‘Elephunk’, and will cost you 7.99 from www.play.com or I think you can get it still from cd-wow and will cost you 8.99.

The cd opens with the song ‘Hands Up’ and is a very good opener to the album. It is an energetic song and it has a prominent jazz influence, but it doesnt stray far from their trademark hip hop sound. It starts the album on a high.

The second song is called ‘Labour Day’ and ha
s an eighties sound to it. It is a much slower song than the previous one it is still one of the best songs on the cd, and the male vocals leading the track make a good contrast to most of the releases which are led my Fergie, who, in this song, does a brilliant job on the backing vocals.

I think that ‘Hey Mama’ is their most recent release, and it has a strong Latin influence. Its one of those songs that are great for dancing to in a club, and definitely one to get you in the mood for partying, as it is very unbeat.

Again, this is one of the releases from the album and is called ‘Shut Up’. It took me a while to like this one after hearing 'Where is the love?' so much on the radio, but after a while it also started popping up everywhere - radio, tv etc and it is definitely one of the strongest songs on the cd. The topic of the song has, of course, been done before - some bloke who is lying and cheating and using the same excuses, the whole song is an argument between her and her man. It is another one to dance to in a club.

‘Smells like Funk’ is the next song here and in my opinion the lyrics are a bit stupid. But, of course, it is another upbeat one and you cant help singing along (into the hairbrush...) and makes it another highlight of the album.

‘Latin Girls’ is about exactly what you might expect from the title. It is about Latin Girls.... and as you may expect, it has strong Latin influences and includes instruments such as the maracas, and the blokes talk a bit of Spanish too. How wonderful and cultured I now feel...

The next track is a bit more jazz influenced and is called ‘Sexy’, again, it is about the wonderfulness and sexyness of women. The song and lyric are very much complimented by Fergies sexy deep voice and the slowness of the track comes as a nice interlude to the so far very upbeat music.


‘Fly Away’ is opened
by the boys rapping but then Fergie, who wrote the song, takes over again with her impressive voice to continue the track. The track is very hip hop, but with the introduction of electric guitars into the song, it soon becomes an impressive blend of rock too. The song is about two people parting and 'flying away' as the title suggests and brings a fresh new sound to the album so far.

The next track is another slower one but has a great heavy bassline and is titled ‘The Boogie that be’. It is a much more chilled out song to the previous one and again comes just in time to clam the mood down after the previous, more rock-sounding one.

‘The Apl song’ is about growing up in the Philippines, and is led by one of the boys. It is a slow song, but has parts of it filled with rap by others in the group. Another strong song on the album.

‘Anxiety’ is the next one and we hear a much more rock-sounding song, even in comparison to 'Fly away'. The much heavier sound no doubt comes from the collaboration with Papa Roach, who help to tell of anxiety within the band members lives. This one stands out on the cd, but for all the wrong reasons and is definitely not one of the best ones.

The finale to the cd is the number one song ‘Where is the Love?’, featuring Justin Timberlake. If you havent heard it, or havnt really listened to the lyrics before, the it is about the band talking on the topic of the world today. It finishes the album on a very good song and provides recovery from the weird-one previously.

This is still on of the best cds I own, and im not quite bored of it yet! Forgetting the odd bad song here and there, it is a near-perfect album and has a very diverse range of sounds. Having heard only a little of their other two releases, you can tell that they have been much more experimental with their music, trying a new range of sounds and usually successfully - you can
see why they have become more mainstream.

Thanks for the read! :P

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