As a huge fan of the single ‘She Wants to Move’, I jumped at the chance to listen to and review the new N*E*R*D album, Seeing Sounds. However, I must say I was a little disappointed. There was nothing new here, nothing interesting except a whole load of repetitive sound-alike songs.
With repeated listening it improves a little and some of the songs such as ‘Window’s, ‘Yeah You’, ‘Sooner or Later’ and ‘Kill Joy’ (featuring a cool 70s cop show chase riff) became more appealing, although I must say the whole album just screams sexual molestation at Good Luck by an overcompensating gangster. The two singles ‘Everybody Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)’ and ‘Spaz’ (which featured on the Microsoft Zune TV commercial) are definitely the focal points of the album, but possibly for the wrong reasons.
Their pokes at Lil’ Jon and Missy Eliot, among others, are fun to listen to. ‘Anti Matter’ features someone yelling “What You Punk Bitch” every 30 seconds in the manner of Lil’ Jon’s collaborations. But, such things get old after a few minutes.
The lyrics are tired, the songs all sound the same and there isn’t much sign of Pharrell’s old innovation and inspiration. For the best part of last decade, production duo Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (with albums In Search Of… and Fly or Die) dutifully plugged away at creating a hybrid between rock music and the R& B and hiphop with which they first became famous. This time however, I think it was a bit of a hit and miss. The album is a weird mix of distorted 70s rock riffs laid over pungent drum ‘n’ bass and crunk shouting. It has its good and bad points (although more bad than good) and it takes a few listens to really get into it.
This isn’t a particularly brilliant album. In fact it would be a bit of a stretch to say it was all that good at all. Even the best tracks come up lacking something. But for what it’s worth, it serves a purpose and is kind of fun when you’re in the mood.