Album Review: N.E.R.D.'s Seeing Sounds
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Artist:
N.E.R.D.'s third album Seeing Sounds fails to take me on any kind of Star Trak-sponsored, space-tastic journey. I had a feeling it wouldn’t fly from the moment I first heard their single "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)," a song comprised of messy, grating layers of sounds, repetitious yelling of the aforementioned parenthesized phrase, and high-pitched falsettos of "Look at'choo! Look at'choo!"The outer-space-loving group has touched down to Earth before, but in more pleasing forms than this genre-blending mash of a headache. N.E.R.D. still offer some catchy songs, but more often, just when I started to like a song, it mutated into some kind of icky, intergalactic robot on LSD. (Should I run from the robot? Should I chill with it and cave to robotic peer pressure?) In other words, the songs don't pan out how I wish they would.
Take "Sooner or Later," a song that starts off with a soulfully delicious hook. Pharrell's off-key crooning over piano and a light beat isn't bad enough to ruin the song. However, it's the hook that's the best part ("Sooner or later it all comes crashing down"). The track runs to nearly seven minutes in length. By the last two minutes guitar and drums kick in and Pharrell stops crooning and starts yelling, "It's ov-er! Leav-ing!" over and over and over. It's a painfully long ending.
Remember "She Wants to Move" off their previous album? What happened to that version of N.E.R.D.? At least they sounded like they wanted to put something good out then. Now, more garish electronic sounds and more rapping over rock guitar riffs (puke!) make them sound like they're trying to fit as many noises in as they can, while only coming across as hollow and unnecessary. If one hasn’t heard N.E.R.D. before, then maybe this could be considered a good album, but this isn't new. We know their gag (talented hip hop producers who like women, spaceships and skateboards), and by now it's wearing as thin as Pharrell's voice sounds.
My preferred songs on Seeing Sounds, because they aren't so jarring, include "Anti Matter," and "Yeah You," both of which stick to trademark, N.E.R.D.-sounding hip-hop, and "You Know What," which presents a discoed-out N.E.R.D.
N.E.R.D. always offer up something different, something nobody's doing, but it seems more and more hit or miss, and this isn't a case of them being before their time, either. Seeing Sounds is worth a few listens, but nothing that would make it into my regular rotation.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (37)
Sounds like an album to download the odd one or two from. Perhaps they've spread themselves a little too thin with all their production work for other artists. Personally, I don't think they're going to top the beats they made for Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury. Enjoyed your review, tho' - ta!
From what I was able to sample, I must say I like the energetic vibes and the cop-that-shit attitude. The protean approach is what attracted me to N.E.R.D. in the first place. I don't see why it should be different now.
That said, "Fly or Die" was a bit flimsy... So if you're saying, that "Seeing Sounds" is also unsubstantial I think I'll do as FluxC recommended: cherry-pick some tracks.
I'm digging the album as a whole. After a few listens, I'm loving "Seeing Sounds"!
The album is not without it's flaws. For one, I think they've made a good 4 minute retro 70's soul song (in "Sooner or Later") into a 7-minute streched-out disaster.
So I've given "Sooner or Later" a spin and I must be deaf but to me the guitar solo sounded like a natural sequence to the falsely trilling piano of the into...
I forgot to say:
FluxC: Oh, there's no way they could ever top the beats they did for Clipse! I'm happy to hear you're a fan of that album.
Jameson: "stretched out disaster" yeah, i agree.
Bartleby: It's a decent one to cherry pick from. I'm glad you listened to that song, maybe it'll grow on me if I give it some more listens.
HAHA, B! Anytime, anytime!
still missing from the new MOG-a Reply To feature that links to your e-mail. just saying
I appreciate your thoughtful review. I am really awful that I have not given N.E.R.D. a good listen throughout their career. Maybe this is a sign for me to go through the earlier albums and appreciate their genius from then. Thank you sis!
I live for the BBF Albume Reviews. Even when I have no interest in buying, listening to, or hearing about the album/artist, I stop by to see what you be talkin bout.
I don't really get my N*E*R*D on too often, but I was still hoping for some dopeness. I'll give it a spin anyway, just so I can feel your pain. Thanks B!
i'll try and put up some stuff this weekend as well -- you're gonna be in boston pretty soon as well right? let me know, like i said, we'll chill and check out some music.
dammit... i forgot the stars made things bold.
Serenity: yeah i would say stick w/ some earlier albums! ...anytime, sis!
Scribes: "I live for the BBF Albume Reviews." Aww shucks, i'm blushing!
nothin but love where where the love is due
havent heard the rest of the album but i like "everybody nose"
Star Trek is how i think it is spelled
i'm going to go check it out, thanks for the warning though brittany
hope you'll let me know what you think!
There are a few disasters on the album... I've been listening to it heavy the last week or so. Oddly enough, I actually think "Sooner or Later" is the highlight. For most songs on this album, Pharrell was taking blind stabs at songwriting-level lyricism and stumbled all over the place, but actually hit the nail on that song, and the outro was straight up classic power pop rock ballad stuff (with a pretty cool guitar solo at the end, if you're into that sorta stuff), which is one of the coolest things I've heard from them or their contemporaries in a long time. Which leads me to the next thing I observed... this album was all about N.E.R.D. trying to live up to their rock/pop influences (The Police, Men At Work and other 80s pop stuff was scattered crazy all over the place). Some songs it came across pretty cool (i.e., "Happy") but in most cases it was a little over ambitious or corny carbon copy.
I feel you on most of the song structure, sh!t would just go awry in the middle of a song for no reason and it sounded like that gorilla on the cover was just walking around in the studio crashing into equipment. On the other hand, I think these guys and this album are kind of important.... the kids that are gonna sit and listen to this album trying to learn about music might not cringe the next time they hear a song from The Police on their adult contemporary station... they might actually stop and say "oh wait, the stuff i like actually comes from somewhere" and take some time to learn about pop music and some of it's history.
Overall, not the greatest or most original album, but still pretty fun, adventuresome and getting better with each listen...
That's what it is: "classic power pop rock ballad stuff"
I might be biased (I'm not as sweet on Pharrell as I once was) but it's the combination of 80s rock/pop cheese and his singing that don't do anything for me anymore. "Happy" was hard to get through for me.
If young listeners can get the history of the music from listening to it then yes, not all is lost, as there are millions of influences heard overall. Thanks for such a great comment, Sum.
I could have sworn I wrote a comment on this a couple of days ago! Anyway, I'm mainly baffled by Pharrell. He slips from ludicrous to brilliant in an instant. Your final comment nailed it. I've listened a couple of times, and it didn't grab me.
hey, i see your commenting probs have been remedied! good to see ya, ben. i'm happy you feel the same about pharrell.
I really loved their first album but the singles I heard from their 2nd didn't wow me enough to buy it. I'm not surprised to hear the style of music is wearing thin on this one. I kinda lost interest after I found out Pharrell did a song w/Britney.
I actually bought the first cd at the store because of the description that said it was The Neptunes' debut & it was cheeeeeap at $7.99 or something like that. I was pleasantly surprised once I heard it. Those were the days . . . .
i definitely got it for cheap too. i think when Virgin was closing down.
@brittanybf & @augusts1 - wow, $7.99! I was just at Circuit City but my budget was not to get music today. I may have to break my penny bank and get there tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get the CD for $7.99. I had to buy a new digital camera for my camera died last night. I was in tears. WAAH! I know I am silly! Hugz..
yea, on first impression of this album, pharrell blows hot and cold. Im don't want to say that your review put the words in my mouth, but I concur with your sentiments exactly here after the listen. and you know its getting bad when skateboards are getting old...
mss: for me to be sick of boys w/ skateboards...that's sayin' somethin!
Brittany- you gotta go see'em live. Then the hole album will make more sense. thye've got a new live band behind them and its like heavy metal hip-hop. it's awesome.
yeah i can imagine live they could put on a hell of a show!
thanks!
I feel the same way about Unkle - each album's become more and more over-indulgent. Lovin' the Clipse reference your profile by the way!
gotta rep clipse haha, good eye!