The Undercover Review

The Black Eyed Peas are back, with a new pea! Fergie has joined the former trio for the making of their third album Elephunk, but the Black Eyed Peas are as together as ever and with more diverse special guests.

Papa Roach ate here adding their guitar fuelled white-boy angst to 'Anxiety' or Justin Timberlake throwing in a hook heavy chorus in the album's first single, the undeniably catchy 'Where Is The Love?' The Black Eyed Peas barely need guests to impress the world however, with the clever production tricks executed in the opening track 'Hands Up' with the old digital editing in the ProTools system trick or the fun mockery of Alicia Keys' 'Fallin' in 'Let's Get Retarded' with the line "Let's get retarded in hereeeeeeeeee" to Alicia's tune starting out a track with unique beats showing an influence from house music.

Fergie begins to come out of her fairly restrictive shell during 'Hey Mama' and 'Shut Up' and what a way to come out, the BEP have chosen well when looking for a fourth member… this girl has talent! The BEP are known mainly for their soft-core non gangster approach to the hip hop community, but they can't escape the whole image with 'Latin Girls' chanting "Latin girls Latin girls, I like Latin girls Latin girls!" in an almost hypnotic mantra. The girl phenomenon continues with 'Sexy'… a song that explains itself! It does have a catchy jazz feel soaking through the music and a chorus sung very close to the tune of The Kinks' 'You Really Got Me', but considering most of the hip hop that makes it into the charts is simply bits and pieces of other songs, these boys can get away with it.

'The Apl Song' is a mellow tune with Apl De Ap sitting somewhere between rapping and singing about his homeland (The Philippines), but the happy-go-lucky feel is interrupted with Papa Roach's previously mentioned track and its opening line "I feel like I want to smack somebody/turn around a bitch slap somebody!"

Before I had heard this album I had heard this would not impress the fans, it's a whole new direction for the group. No way! Don't believe the hype! The boys are back, granted with a companion, but hey, this album isn't the group repeating themselves and it's not the group being so different that the fans will feel alienated. If you liked the last album, Elephunk is worth a chance.

By Tim Cashmere

Track Listing
Hands Up
Labor Day (It's A Holiday)
Let's Get Retarded
Hey Mama
Shut Up
Smells Like Funk
Latin Girls
Sexy
Fly Away
The Boogie That Be
The Apl Song
Anxiety
Where Is The Love?

Label

Universal