The spare pop precision The Neptunes bring as
superstar producers goes out the window whenever Pharrell Williams and Chad
Hugo team up with rapper Shae Haley for their unpredictable hip-hop rock band
N.E.R.D. The bizarro psychedelic soul of 2004's Fly Or Die turned off some hooked in
by N.E.R.D's relatively straightforward debut In Search Of, but that record's playful
adventurousness obviously still appeals to N.E.R.D., which gets even weirder on
the new Seeing Sounds. With a jazz-piano breakdown and grating vocal hook about
vacant club girls lining up to sniff blow, the single "Everybody Nose" somehow
snatches success from the jaws of humiliating defeat, ingratiating itself in
spite of seemingly fighting like hell not to. The rest of Seeing Sounds similarly overcomes its
inherent haphazardness. Williams should sound more ridiculous than he does when
he bellows "Fuck what the government says!" over mariachi horns and John Lennon
piano chords on "Love Bomb." But N.E.R.D.'s gonzo commitment to crossing genre
boundaries in sometimes silly, nonsensical ways remains surprisingly tenable.
Join the discussion...