Album Reviews

As The Neptunes, production duo Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo have worked with everyone from Britney Spears to Busta Rhymes. With scores of hits and several Grammy nods under their belts, it comes as no shock that the pair would want to turn the flow of their creative juices towards the other side of the mixing board. Under the guise of N.E.R.D., the pair, along with drummer/rapper Shay Haley, has once again given pop and hip-hop a fresh breath of old-school flair and forward-thinking experimentation with their third album, Seeing Sounds.

The first the about Seeing Sounds that jumped out at me is that the album doesn't sit still for a second. Williams and Hugo use that wealth of knowledge gained from working with all the varied artists whose names pad their resume to hopscotch from genre to genre with ease. "Windows" takes a peppy, Outkast-inspired brand of funk and drowns it in pop eclecticism while "Anti Matter" delivers attitude-laden, futuristic hip-hop; yet the two songs flow perfectly from one to the next. Lead single "Everybody Nose" brings an infectious hook that everyone will be singing this summer. The jazzy stand-up bass and smooth vocal of "Yeah You" and the '70s R&B meets Prince vibe on "Sooner Or Later" provide some of the most tuneful moments heard on the album.

A song like "Happy," on the other hand, tends to wander a bit too far; the results are less than satisfying. "Killjoy," "Lovebomb" and opener "Time For Some Action" are others that might be better off getting treatment from your iPod's "skip" button; the laughable lyrics should be reason enough. These few blemishes, along with the handful of familiar melodies heard on the album (maybe these guys have spent a bit too much time with other people’s songs…) aren't enough to take away from the fact that this is, in fact, a good disc. If anything else, Seeing Sounds proves Williams and Hugo to be talented songwriters as well as producers.

—Ryan Ogle
06.17.08