N.E.R.D. - "You Know What" (mp3)

In 2005, Pharrell Williams proclaimed "N.E.R.D. is dead" to the press after the band's poorly received 2nd album, and three years later, I'm not sure why that isn't still true (I could crack the same joke about the "noone ever really dies" acronym as everyone else, but no). After a somewhat promising beginning, the group had quickly become a bizarre and mostly unappreciated offshoot of the otherwise hugely successful Neptunes production brand. The band got Pharrell and Chad Hugo the kinds of rock airplay and positive reviews that they probably never would've gotten just making beats for rappers and R&B singers, but it was still kind of perennially unclear what the fuck was up with N.E.R.D. and why they bother with a lot of dopey, sub-Red Hot Chilli Peppers funk rock, and it still isn't now in 2008 with the release of Seeing Sounds.

If you know me or read this blog with any regularity you probably know I am totally fucking in love with Spymob, the power pop band that were briefly signed to Star Trak and played backup on the first N.E.R.D. album (the version with live instruments, natch), and I'm still kind of bitter at overlooked they are, largely because they got some kind of 'funk-metal' stigma from being known mainly for being the guys who played on the rock versions of songs like "Lapdance" and "Rockstar." I think a couple of the Spymob guys are back on the new album to some extent and Chad has been playing much of the guitar on the band's records since the last album, but for the most part Seeing Sounds is just regular old Neptunes drum programming with a little more of that N.E.R.D. goofiness. Songs like "Yeah You" sound like they could've been scraped from the R&B half of another shitty Pharrell solo album, and the tracks that go for full on rock arrangements like "Happy" are mostly absolutely awful. Occasionally there are some gems, though, mostly on the R&B side like the closer "You Know What," not that they're even on the level of previous N.E.R.D. high points like "Maybe" or "Run To The Sun."

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 at 9:05 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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"Yeah You" is shitty? you're crazy sir. one of my favorite tracks off there, it, "Love Bomb" and "You Know What" are all real close. i like "Happy" too but i'm pretty rock ign'ant at the moment. but then i don't trust anyone who hates on Timbaland and (good) Pharrell and hypes Polow da Don and dinky R. Kelly-type pop as better

as for Hugo and Spymob, i didn't even notice the guys listed were from Spymob 'til you pointed it out, but yeah the guitarist and drummer play on every track besides "Everyone Nose," "Happy," "Time for Some Action" and "Windows" (last two are The Hives.) Hugo doesn't play any guitar on this one but he does contribute some to a few of the Pharrell-written tracks, including keys on "Happy" and "You Know What" which explains why they have the most recognizable trademark Neptunes synths on the album.

anyway, good blog, been reading for a while
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:43 PM
 
Timbaland and the Neptunes are still two of the greatest of all time based on the work they did up through 2003 or so, but they've just both been real spotty since then and of course when I'm writing about new music I'm gonna focus on the bullshit they're making now, not the classics they made then. And I wouldn't put someone with a much shorter track record like Polow up with them in the long run, obviously, I'm not crazy.
# posted by Blogger Al : 8:26 PM
 
i mean, Pharrell has put out mostly bullshit lately when he's working for outside artists other than Jay but i haven't heard any Polow beats that can really fuck with either the new N.E.R.D. or Timberlake/Shock Value/Furtado/Madonna (the last of which is the weak link but is still better than most Polow i've heard) Timbaland. other than "Promise" and the two beats he did on that will.i.am album. Polow's beats to me generally sound competent at best and a lot of times come off as bland streamlined knockoffs of assorted Timbaland/Timbahandz styles, like that annoying Chris Brown single that's all over the radio now.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 11:18 PM
 
Pharrell has done plenty of decent tracks with people "other than Jay" in recent years, meanwhile almost every song they've done together since "Give It 2 Me" has been total embarrassing bullshit. And I'm not really in a mood to defend Polow since he's only made a couple tracks in the past year or so that I even like.
# posted by Blogger Al : 9:36 AM
 
i am a nerd fanatic. i think their finest hour was fly or die personally. this new album was a dissappointment to me. i love the origional and remix version to everybody nose. but the artwork had more depth than the music. like what do they really have to talk about? chad does better work with kenna honestly. to me this a vanity band now. like i said fly or die was realllly good. this sounded like a dress up of the dissappointing pharrell solo album.
# posted by Blogger Unknown : 6:26 AM
 
Yeah, man, the stuff Chad did with Kenna was the shit, I'll give you that. I feel like it's always the wrong projects that these guys get the most attention for.
# posted by Blogger Al : 8:43 AM
 
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