Seeing Sounds

by

N.E.R.D.

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Opening cut "Time for some action" has a minute long movie-like narration by Pharell sounding like he's going to make some profound statement, before turning into a funky club banger, in which he assures "This is not love/it's lust". At least he is honest!

And with that, Pharell, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley, better known as N*E*R*D return with their third album. Unlike it's mostly Rocky predecessor "Fly or die", this is a mish mash of styles; Funk, Dance, and Rock, sometimes interlacing all in one song.

Similar to the opening cut is the bouncy "Everyone nose...". "Windows" sounds like "Around the world in a day" era Prince, a clap-filled pop/rock song with Pharell even throwing in some Prince-style squeals. "Anti matter" has a buzzing riff with rapped verses and drum & bass in parts, followed by the similar "Spaz".

"Yeah you" is one of my favourites, groovy R&B, as is the Chic-sounding "You know what" complete with scratchy guitars and remniscent of the song "She's not me" Pharell did on Madonna's new CD. Both will definately get a club jumping.

"Happy" is a sunny rocker which wouldn't sound out of place on "Fly or die", "kill joy" (with a rap about Little red riding hood and Prince-like harmonies) is a Funk laced upbeat song with a James Brown feel, while closing cut "Laugh about it" pairs chunky beats with driving guitars.

Slowing things down are the piano ballad "Sooner or later" with lovely harmonies (remember "Maybe" from "Fly or die"?), and "Love bomb" (piano and guitars, eerie flourishes and chunky beats in the chorus).

So there you have it, their most musically adventurous album yet. A fun album with a little something for everyone.

Given the amount of work and wide disparity of ideas the Neptunes have done and thought up over the years in the realms of pop music, it comes as little surprise that their slightly more rock-oriented side project N.E.R.D. (with rapper friend Shay) is about as cohesive as a jar of silly putty. With Seeing Sounds, their third album, N.E.R.D. has created a colorful stew of random pop detritus marinated in a simmering combination of divergent genres. The theme of this album is it has no theme; each song is as different from the one before it as Miley Cyrus is from Trent Reznor.

Seeing Sounds, in effect, comes off as the epitome of throwing everything and the kitchen-sink into what can only very loosely be called a rock album. Just listen to the opener "Time For Some Action": it starts off a `50s sitcom string part (which, by the way, strangely kept reminding me of the work on The Sims) and Pharrell's spoken-word tale about how he started, uh, seeing sounds before a mean drum `n bass beat comes in and Pharrell reminds us to "turn this bitch up here we go."

On "Time For Some Action," this mad-scientist amalgam of different sounds and styles works. Other songs pull it off as well, such as the magnificently poppy doo-wop of "Windows" and the club banger "Anti Matter" with its very millennial chant of "you jump around like you're ADHD!"

Pharrell thankfully keeps the rapping to a minimum on this record, and he tends to shy away from the falsetto that can easily ruin a good Neptunes track. Nevertheless, N.E.R.D. are at their best when they're making a relentlessly hypnotic jam like album highlight "Spaz," which bounces around on loose, ricocheting snares, a horror-show synth, and an irrepressibly memorable chorus.

With all the ideas Pharrell and company pump out on this record, it should be no surprise that a good many of them fall flat. First single "Everyone Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom)" has a Neptunes-worthy beat and some of Pharrell's best lyrics on the album. But the criminally annoying titular chant kills any momentum the song might have had.

Seeing Sounds can almost neatly be divided cleanly down the middle, with the first half generally consisting of more Neptunes-ish dance tracks and the latter more funk rock-ish material. Not surprisingly, the second half is weaker all-around, disrupted by half-baked ideas or poorly executed designs. "Sooner or Later" sounds like a second-rate Ben Folds song with an out-of-place guitar freakout at the end, and "Kill Joy" resembles early Red Hot Chili Peppers, in a very bad way.

By the end of the album N.E.R.D. seems to lose steam, the last few songs stuck in various ideas that fail to develop much beyond their origins save for bright spot "You Know What," a disco-tinged tune that is a welcome breath of relaxation amidst the walls of sounds around it.

N.E.R.D. have certainly accomplished making a record that is more wildly diverse than their Neptunes work and even their previous albums, but they have yet to master the pop chemistry that makes the Neptunes the kings of music production. Just because you can throw everything into a song doesn't necessarily mean you should, something the Neptunes learned long ago but that N.E.R.D. seem to have forgotten in their excitement at being able to put to record every random musical thought they were never able to use.