N.E.R.D. came out with their 3rd album last week, the highly anticipated Seeing Sounds.
After a 4 year hiatus and a major disbanding, they released a 12 track album full of the unique qualities N.E.R.D. is known for bringing to the musical forefront. Yes, Pharrell did once say, “N.E.R.D. is no more”.
With major hype from their performances from SXSW at the Fader Fort and Stubb's to their joint venture with Kanye West on the Glow In The Dark tour you would've thought this album would be as big as the hype associated with it.
I'm sad to say that it fails to make the big bang N.E.R.D. was hoping for.
It opens up with an intro damn similar to Busta Rhymes "Gimme Some Mo’" in the way Pharrell talks about his childhood to a classical music backdrop.
Then this leads into the track "Time for Some Action" that rarely has time for any action because it's so boring. For some reason, it's also missing the "Everyone Nose" rap remix too.
"Yeah You" even seems to borrow a voice from the morning show of Houston's 93.3 with a woman who sounds like one of the prank callers on that show.
The album's last song "Laugh About It" is a cool 80's sounding jam, though. It reminds me of a LaFace (L.A. Ried and Babyface) jam with Pebbles with its hard synths and antsy chorus.
What this album is missing is live instrumentation. The tracks that were performed during N.E.R.D.'s promo tour don't translate well to the album. Take "Spaz" for example; the whipping xylophone was a force to be reckoned with on tour and you could feel the groove and vibe the Neptunes wanted to make with it when they did their little swinging arm dance. It doesn't fit well to the album because the track doesn't make me want to dance anymore. It just make's me want to sit and listen. Also, the chorus was performed better live than on the CD version. This also goes for "Anti-Matter" and a bit for "Killjoy".
Pharrell is notorious for getting his new music hype during stage performances, though. The song "Baby" from his solo album In My Mind was the first track he performed live from it (try to YouTube the Japan performance of it). During the live performance it was so infectious and hard it made you want to run out and buy the album the first day it came out. Then when IMM was released, "Baby" didn't have any of the same funky characteristics Pharrell's band bought to the live show. It was bland and for the most part, very skippable. Having Nelly on it didn't help either.
You see, what made N.E.R.D. so great in the first place was that they successfully fused rock, hip-hop, pop, punk, soul, and just plain good music in the beginning. Take In Search Of for example. It had the Clipse, Kelis, and the pre-Bape Neptunes all in their hey-day. Let’s now add to the fact that you also had Spymob perform all the live instrumentation the Neptunes produced. Most don't know, except for extreme Pharrell fanatics, that ISO was released as a digital version without Spymob's work. Most people have the live album and agree that it was a driving force in what made In Search Of so special.
Seeing Sounds seems to fall short from other N.E.R.D. releases because it doesn't have any bonus tracks. That was one of the things that made the band so quirky and fun. I just don’t feel that there’s much to look forward to when listening to the album. Sometimes Pharrell’s lyrics are hard to understand and it seems he had some serious writer’s block on songs. I don’t want to hear a grown man talking about “I’m a little tea pot” on any track like he does on “Spaz”. Ha, ha, ha.
I know they can do better than this though. I just hope we won’t have to wait as long as four years for the improvement and sit through another supposed group break-up.
High points:
N.E.R.D. at SXSW '08 filmed by me:
I'll also keep you posted for the >N.E.R.D. party< I'm hosting real soon!
Gamble
After a 4 year hiatus and a major disbanding, they released a 12 track album full of the unique qualities N.E.R.D. is known for bringing to the musical forefront. Yes, Pharrell did once say, “N.E.R.D. is no more”.
With major hype from their performances from SXSW at the Fader Fort and Stubb's to their joint venture with Kanye West on the Glow In The Dark tour you would've thought this album would be as big as the hype associated with it.
I'm sad to say that it fails to make the big bang N.E.R.D. was hoping for.
It opens up with an intro damn similar to Busta Rhymes "Gimme Some Mo’" in the way Pharrell talks about his childhood to a classical music backdrop.
Then this leads into the track "Time for Some Action" that rarely has time for any action because it's so boring. For some reason, it's also missing the "Everyone Nose" rap remix too.
"Yeah You" even seems to borrow a voice from the morning show of Houston's 93.3 with a woman who sounds like one of the prank callers on that show.
The album's last song "Laugh About It" is a cool 80's sounding jam, though. It reminds me of a LaFace (L.A. Ried and Babyface) jam with Pebbles with its hard synths and antsy chorus.
What this album is missing is live instrumentation. The tracks that were performed during N.E.R.D.'s promo tour don't translate well to the album. Take "Spaz" for example; the whipping xylophone was a force to be reckoned with on tour and you could feel the groove and vibe the Neptunes wanted to make with it when they did their little swinging arm dance. It doesn't fit well to the album because the track doesn't make me want to dance anymore. It just make's me want to sit and listen. Also, the chorus was performed better live than on the CD version. This also goes for "Anti-Matter" and a bit for "Killjoy".
Pharrell is notorious for getting his new music hype during stage performances, though. The song "Baby" from his solo album In My Mind was the first track he performed live from it (try to YouTube the Japan performance of it). During the live performance it was so infectious and hard it made you want to run out and buy the album the first day it came out. Then when IMM was released, "Baby" didn't have any of the same funky characteristics Pharrell's band bought to the live show. It was bland and for the most part, very skippable. Having Nelly on it didn't help either.
You see, what made N.E.R.D. so great in the first place was that they successfully fused rock, hip-hop, pop, punk, soul, and just plain good music in the beginning. Take In Search Of for example. It had the Clipse, Kelis, and the pre-Bape Neptunes all in their hey-day. Let’s now add to the fact that you also had Spymob perform all the live instrumentation the Neptunes produced. Most don't know, except for extreme Pharrell fanatics, that ISO was released as a digital version without Spymob's work. Most people have the live album and agree that it was a driving force in what made In Search Of so special.
Seeing Sounds seems to fall short from other N.E.R.D. releases because it doesn't have any bonus tracks. That was one of the things that made the band so quirky and fun. I just don’t feel that there’s much to look forward to when listening to the album. Sometimes Pharrell’s lyrics are hard to understand and it seems he had some serious writer’s block on songs. I don’t want to hear a grown man talking about “I’m a little tea pot” on any track like he does on “Spaz”. Ha, ha, ha.
I know they can do better than this though. I just hope we won’t have to wait as long as four years for the improvement and sit through another supposed group break-up.
High points:
- Shae (the known backman) has more lyrics
- The CD booklet is cool
- Lyrics
- Anti-Matter again... I think it needs Slim Thug and his swagga on the chorus. Don't change the lyrics on it though
- The MUSIC and not Billionaire Boys Club as much
N.E.R.D. at SXSW '08 filmed by me:
I'll also keep you posted for the >N.E.R.D. party< I'm hosting real soon!
Gamble
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