THE LOST AND FOUND

So the new N.E.R.D. leaked—like everything does—and a friend linked me to it. Being a fan of their production ever since Superthug, I decided to actually download it. This hesitation and the “I Guess,” in “I Guess I’ll Press Play,” is not a reflection of any negative expectations I had for this album, however. Quite the contrary, it’s just been a while. Due to time constraints I barely ever listen to full albums. Tonight though, since other contributors wrote some, I decided to listen to this in its entirety while writing this quick review.

A journey through Seeing Sounds (a chronological commentary & album review), awaits, after the jump… (Plus, a few mp3’s)

[Published: 2:36 AM]

Sooner Or Later: 1:59am
This track would be pretty nice at a picnic. Word to Pharrel’s singing. Andre 3000 paved the way for this type of song in hip hop, and Pharrel said thanks and made one.

Anti matter: 2:00am (LISTEN)
The reason I decided to review the album in the first place—this track is haht. Pure haht shit. Bump this in your toyota vans. Familiar drum samples, nice beat, catchy ass chorus, and it transitions into a completely different (and equally catchy) song at 2minutes 30seconds. Plus, a few hot lines (like “Life is short and black and white, just like little penguins” and):

“Talkin’ about ‘Where da weed at?’
Wait, what you coughin’ fer?
I thought you was an expert,
Now listen to the officer.” INTRO & Time for some action: 2:03am (LISTEN)
Track we just posted a few days ago. Tight intro, probably a true story. One time I burned one in my hotel room and could see sounds while I fell asleep. Catchy shit, this is their own sound for sure—has a classic Neptunes feel to me. I like P’s rhyme pattern but if the chorus was more than four words I’d probably listen longer. Beat change-up at 2minutes 30secs.Everyone Nose: 2:07am (LISTEN)
Slurricaine. Not feelin’ the repetitive yelling without the beat behind it at the start. Once the actual song starts, it really captures the essence of the subject matter. What is this, like 135 beats per minute? Cool. Beat change-up at 1minute 55seconds and some singing—more hahtness.

Spaz: 2:10am
So Pharrel. A fairly grimey, uptempo beat. There’s beat change-ups and transitions all over the place on this album and this song is no exception. Me likey.

Yeah You: 2:14am
Fo’ the ladies.

Sooner Or Later: 2:15am
Fo’ the depressed ladies… (and gentlemen? More singing.)

HAPPY: 2:15am
Word to travis barker?

KILL joy: 2:16am
Little Red Ridinghood rendition/interpretation? Lyrics reminded me of these beautiful losers. Anyways, this is not my shit. One minute and 30 seconds into it, after a beat change-up, I asked myself, “What genre is this even? Soft pop-punk-inspired electro-dance?”

Love bomb: 2:18am
Cool title. More singing:

“Sitting here in this white padded room,
Imaginin’ I’m a meteor flying out through the distant space.
How this tiny speckle(?) earth destroyed tomorrow…so capable of so many thangs…
Why make life, taking planes?” After a minute, the beat drops and this is an ill song. Well executed song concept and content.you know what: 2:22am
I’m feelin’ the fast guitar rift. At first I didn’t like this track but it’s not bad at all.

laugh about it: 2:23 am
To me, a nice way to end the album. A good guitar rift and weird laughing samples send you on your way. Album ends.

CONCLUSION: 2:24am
Their focus on filling this album with energy and emotion is evident and it was wise to make that their song criteria. I still hear traces of that early Neptunes sound in this album but I’ll admit I didn’t really listen to N.E.R.D.’s last album. Therefore, I can only compare this to every other random track they produced for artists over the years. Despite the gap in my knowledge of their discography, I respect their production and always have. I respect anyone with a good ear, and to say they have a good ear is an understatement.

My first instinct is to say they’re very experimental on this album but mostly it was their song ‘Happy’ that left me so inclined. Upon further consideration though, since I assume their last album had some similar songs, it’s actually the rest of the album that makes the statement true. This album is so experimental that a lot of the time it’s hard to even categorize certain songs. As in, if someone tried to choose an exact musical genre for each track, it would be a challenge and sometimes nearly impossible. Not that their influences are a mystery (they include everything from nostalgic hip hop to drum n’ bass), it’s just that when you combine different genres the resulting music becomes harder to classify. Fortunately, that doesn’t matter at all, and most people (including N.E.R.D. themselves) don’t care.

Over-all, it was a solid listen and I’d recommend it to anyone that isn’t scared to admit they like a Justin Timberlake song or two. I respect Pharrel for having the balls to sing so much—and possibly even scream in a high-pitched voice (1min 20sec into that ‘Windows’ track)—so, props to him. (Similar to the type of respect Andre 3 earned from me when he did a full singing album and people blamed it on baduism.) All jokes aside, Seeing Sounds broke down some musical-genre barriers and sounded—or should i say looked, good doing it. I give it 4 drug-induced auditory hallucinations out of 5.

PRO’S AND CON’S:
+ Production is sick
+ It’s party music and hip hop needs that right now
- No guest appearances, more good mc’ing needed

Let the remixing begin.

PREVIOUSLY:
REVIEWS BY OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD:
NERD: ANTI MATTER

NERD: TIME FOR SOME ACTION

NERD: EVERYONE NOSE