The Black Eyed Peas will release "The E.N.D.," their first studio album in four years, on June 9.

The group originally had hoped to release the set, which stands for "The Energy Never Dies," in March. The band plans an international tour in support of the Interscope release.

Black Eyed Peas principal will.i.am previously told Billboard he hopes the album will continue to evolve even after it is released. "When (the album) comes out, there'll be 12 songs on it, but the next day there could be 100 songs, 50 sketches, 1,000 blogs all (online) around 'The End,' so the energy really, truly never dies," he said.

He described the music as "a lot of dance stuff, real melodic, electronic, soulful. We call it, like, electric static funk, something like that."

The Black Eyed Peas' last album, "Monkey Business," was released in May 2005 and has sold 4.2 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In 2006, singer Fergie released her solo album, "The Dutchess," which produced the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits "London Bridge" and "Big Girls Don't Cry."

Will.i.am has been busy with musical activities around the election of president Barack Obama. He wrote the anthem "Yes We Can," which turned into a star-studded viral video, and performed at the inauguration ceremonies. He also spent part of 2008 co-scoring the animated film "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" with Hans Zimmer and voicing one of the characters.

(China Daily/Agencies February 18, 2009)