Saturday, May 9, 2009

N*E*R*D - Seeing Sounds


Guilty pleasures. They are things that approach respectability but fall just short. Their failure is made even more evident by seeing the potential for true greatness right behind the veneer of ambivilance, incinsistency, or silliness. There HAS to be something that is REALLY good in order to make the pleasure large enough to overshadow the guilt or embarassment that comes with it. It's got to be so completely over the top that it overwhelms your better judgement.
Musically, my top three guilty pleasures are (in order): Berlin, Rammstein, and N*E*R*D. There's something, even if it's just one thing, awesome about each of these. Berlin's 'Take my Breath Away' does just that every time I hear it. It's so brilliantly grandiose with its synthesized tubular bells that it doesn't matter how ridiculously sappy it is, it puts on such a convincing facade of true emotion that I will defend it like a knight does a princess. Rammstein's visceral intensity makes me faster when I go running.
N*E*R*D's music worms into you. Pharrell Williams crafts beats and loops in such a way that you truly believe that he does see sounds, as the newest album's title suggests. The sweetness of the beats makes the album go down easily, but the sheer dumbness of some of the tracks still comes thru with bitter obviousness from time to time. When the songs themselves are good, N*E*R*D's tunes rock with the best, but their duds are epic and give their albums a sabatoging inconsistency.
In an era where false artists craft albums full of filler to support an album relying on one or two standout tracks, I wouldn't accuse N*E*R*D of this as it's the same problem that has weighted down each of their albums back to 2003's In Search of... Also, each of the tracks, no matter how bad, feels like it has been slaved over.
Seeing Sounds is half great. Of it's twelve tracks, six of them are so listenable and unique, they invade your mind and take over. Lyrically, N*E*R*D again demonstrates their extreme inconsistency. Pharrell segues between rapping and singing easily, and does both well. While pigeon-holed as rap, N*E*R*D's musical taxedermy defies easy categorization. 'Windows,' for example is sraight away the finest rock song N*E*R*D has recorded. With a Kinks-style guitar hook, and lyrics detailing the character's vouyeristic tendencies, the song feels like the British Invasion revisited by urban America.
'Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom),' is production perfection and conceals its barbs against the chic idiocy of cocaine nightlife well enough to get airplay.
The middle of the album shows N*E*R*D at their peak. Their album art, depicting the members floating thru space, exploring new territory is suddenly fitting. It culminates with 'Happy,' a euphoric number that employs guitar wahs and an infectious beat to overcome any listener hesitancy.
'Happy' is such a standout that it makes the following faltering all the more evident. 'Kill Joy' shows what happens when the production goes haywire and 'Love Bomb' shows that Pharrell would do well to get a second opinion of his lyrics from time to time.
Thru the highs and the lows, N*E*R*D is, at least, authentic. They don't compromise their sound and seemingly pursue their vision to the best of their ability. When the results are good, they can be good enough to make you forget about the clunkers and make you keep hoping for that thoroughly solid album that they keep trying to make.

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