Hip Hop Rap Music : Seeing Sounds

Seeing Sounds

£5.90

  1. Intro / Time For Some Action
  2. Everyone Nose (All The Girls Standing In The Line For The Bathroom)
  3. Windows
  4. Anti Matter
  5. Spaz
  6. Yeah You
  7. Sooner or Later
  8. Happy
  9. Kill Joy
  10. Love Bomb
  11. You Know What
  12. Laugh About It
  13. Lazer Gun

The title of N.E.R.D’s third album, Seeing Sounds, was inspired by a TV show the band watched about synaesthesia--the neurological disorder that causes people to experience sounds as colours or objects in their minds. The concept inspired the trio (Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, a.k.a. The Neptunes, and their rapping pal Shay Haley) to create a record as if it were a live show, as if the listener were really able to see the band playing. As ideas go, it s a dubious one, but it does give the band the opportunity to dive back into their musical ocean and splash noisily around, leaving listeners soaked and astounded. With the usual disregard for genre, Seeing Sounds opens with bass-heavy low-rider Time For Some Action, before heading off on an intense roller-coaster ride that takes in the choppy, digi-drum & bass of Spaz and the infectious booty-bass of single Everyone Nose (a look at Hollywood s cocaine obsession) via a veritable kaleidoscope of colourful sound. Sooner or Later is all smooth Motown soul, Kill Joy is riff-heavy rock and Anti Matter has an Atari crunk feel. This breathless diversity is, of course, what N.E.R.D. are best at, and the good news is that Seeing Sounds can be considered a return to form after the nadir of Fly Or Die, though Whether it stands up to their debut or whether their new experiments ever get beyond the superficial, is another matter entirely.--Paul Sullivan

Pharrell s better musical group - Apart from Frontin , Pharrell s solo output has been confusingly bad, and he has far more success with his funk/rock group N*E*R*D. The band s latest offering Seeing Sounds successfully combines the mellow chords of In Search Of and the prominent guitar of Fly Or Die in a musically diverse album. Drum n Bass influences Everybody Nose, Anti Matter and Spaz, but the latter two tracks sound somewhat cluttered with ideas. The funk and flow of Yeah You is better, while the Beatle-esque Sooner or Later is a brilliant number before it breaks into a 2 minute guitar solo. Although Pharrell cites Steely Dan as one of his main influences, this guitar solo cannot match that of Walter Becker.Tracks such as You Know What and Laser Gun are stronger and hark back to In Search Of..., where the music was more linear, and the Neptunes style-production allowed the songs to flow.This is a clever album, and Pharrell s talents are clear to the ear, but at times it feels his ideas ran away with him.

great comeback - This album seems to follow a similar theme to pharrell s recent solo album. It begins with a series of up beat tracks with more current hip hop influence. From track 6 onwards is a return to the old classics of the first two N.E.R.D. albums. I personally prefer the second half of the album where the originality of the N.E.R.D. sound lies but refreshed and current, sooner or later and love bomb will have your hands swinging in the air and killjoy is a funkadelic headbanger. The first few tracks are listenable and i m sure will grow in time, there are even a few jungle rhythms on spaz . This album is equally as good as the first two and fans will not be disappointed.

Well worth the buy - I downloaded this album primarily because of the tune spaz. I listened to a couple of tracks first time round but then i just let the album play. I love it. It s got such a mix of fast beats, rock, and slow beautiful songs. I m not going to over analyse it and put some pretentious critique. But i love my music and i love this album.

Not the best album - Nerd s third album is probably the groups worse effort so far. Nothing they have done since they released their debut album in search of has been anywhere near as good. Pharrell and chad have gone on to be superstar producers but have forgotten to create good music for themselves. This isnt a bad album but is very much a mixed bag,it ranges from ablsoloute brilliance you know what Laugh about it to the downright dire and self indulgent sooner or later kill joy the former of which is one of the cheesiest rnb tracks ive heard in ages..really bad. The single evrybody noze is good but not amazing..the jazzy breakdoen at the end being the best bit and time for some action is pretty good too the rest as i sid ranges between average-bad. I would rate nerds albums so far1. In search of (9/10) amazing album..nearly every track dope.2. Fly or die 7/10) not as good and a more slightly rockier sound in place but some good tracks.3. seeing sounds (6/10) The worse album so far but has 3 or 4 very good tracks..the rest just meidiocre or dire.

Refreshing............. - I have always been a fan of this side project from the Neptunes, their second album Fly or Die was practically on heavy rotaion on my Ipod. I must admit I was not sure that there would be another outing from these guys as they had disagreements with the record company over FOD.Seeing Sounds is really split into two parts, the first part is dedicated to MTV Base crew, songs like Everyone Nose and Spaz, but for me the second half of the album kicks in. Sooner or Later , Kill Joy and Love Bomb are the stand out tracks. The production on this one is sparse but it seems to suit the songs, Pharell seems to have developed more as a songwriter and takes most of the songwriting credits. Like the first review has pointed out, you may need a few listens,but hey its worth it. Already in my 10 Ten List for albums of the year.




Seeing Sounds