Like the Black Eyed Peas, N.E.R.D is traditionally known for its unique stylistic blend of hip−hop, R&B and rock. Over the years it has managed to stay notable in the music industry, always releasing unexpected material and almost never failing to exceed expectations.
Pharrell Williams continued to keep his fans guessing when he accepted the task of creating a soundtrack for the hit movie "Despicable Me," with Hans Zimmer. Those who have seen this recent animated film can attest that he did a phenomenal job. Williams should have stopped there. Inspired by his soundtrack experience, however, he decided to create another album with fellow N.E.R.D members, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley.
Their latest album, "Nothing," is what they came up with. Their intention was promising, as displayed by their intensely creative album cover.
"[The cover] represents a mix of many things," Williams said. "The feathers represent the peace and the helmet represents the war. It's like where we are right now. There's a lot of war that people can't necessarily explain. The economy sucks and girls are still beautiful. We wanted to make music that reflected that. So people can look back 20 years from now and say, ‘this is what's going on.'"
The ambition that inspired the making of this album is nothing less than admirable. For perhaps the first time in N.E.R.D's career, however, it failed to meet expectations.
The success of the first two 2010 singles released — "Hot N' Fun" featuring Nelly Furtado and "Hypnotize U" — raised expectations for the album. The first of the two is an upbeat track that gets better every time you listen to it. It's classic N.E.R.D, blending as many types of music as possible, starting off with catchy rap lyrics that smoothly lead into a hot and fun groove.
"Hypnotize U" is a truly unique piece, perhaps only to be appreciated by true N.E.R.D fans. It has an old−fashioned, James Brown−meets−Eddie−Murphy kind of sound to it that only works because of Williams' stylistic falsetto. Appreciating this track calls for an acquired taste for Williams' voice and N.E.R.D's style in general.
The rest of the album is close to being a disaster. It sounds like it was taken from a bad 1970s R&B mix tape and splashed with confounding doses of funk and soul. The album tries to hold the listener's attention with bizarre drumbeats, synthesizer solos, brass instrument interruptions and distracting handclaps, but it simply doesn't work.
The one good thing about the album is that it grows on you. As you listen to the songs more and more, you realize that the unimpressive beats have no correlation to the lyrics and you inevitably begin to appreciate the poetic nature of the verses. Though this is far from being the greatest of N.E.R.D's albums, true fans can appreciate the risk that the band took by adding more to the 2010 hit singles. This album could be a benchmark moment in the group's career, signifying a change in direction and therefore worth adding to the Williams/N.E.R.D section of your iTunes library, if one actually exists.
If you have never been big on the unusual style of Wililams, Hugo and Haley, however, I would certainly discourage you from starting with "Nothing." Stick with the Black Eyed Peas and watch "Despicable Me."
