N*E*R*Dy

So N*E*R*D’s back, flaunting all the appropriate characteristics for the ideal postmodern pop-rock band: an effortless mélange of hiphop, rock, and 80s synth music married to an ironic attitude. The description sounds a lot like Gnarls Barkley (a duo likewise hard to characterize), but N*E*R*D predated that group by four years with their first record, In Search Of… (I always thought it was overrated; I only dug on “Rock Star – Poser” and “Lapdance.”) But off the new record Seeing Sounds, the retro-sounding “Windows,” with Motown-like handclaps and “do do do” harmonizing, is the only song that might bring Gnarls Barkley to mind. The rest is far too energetic and futuristic to be anything but pure N*E*R*D. It’s the perfect soundtrack for the jumpy girls with coke joneses playfully satirized on the first single, “Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)” – see video below.

Lead singer Pharrell Williams is celebrated mainly for his phenomenal talent as a producer; his distinct touch is all over most of Madonna’s latest, Hard Candy. This makes sense, because his lack of singing ability sometimes makes N*E*R*D harder to appreciate. Poor vocals weigh down certain songs — “Yeah You,” for example — like an anchor; because of his voice, it’s hard to know if he’s seriously seducing or joking around. N*E*R*D’s lyrics are also trite and secondary to the music. “Everyone Nose” takes coke use as its subject (“cut you open and you’re all white,” Pharrell sings… and yo! My last few times in New York, everyone nose f’real; coke is the new weed!), but most of Seeing Sounds deals with hookups and partying.

Beats redeem the album though. The agitated triphop drumming on “Anti Matter,” probably my favorite, complements the song’s New Wave guitars nicely, creating a standout. “Kill Joy” uses the old-school Sugarhill Gang-like rhymes of N*E*R*D’s Shay effectively and, like most of Seeing Sounds, the bridge contrasts the original melody sharply. More than anything else, N*E*R*D continues to be a fly storage room for the more experimental sounds that producer Pharrell Williams can’t hawk elsewhere. Love that shot from Paris-based Citizen K, one of my favorites mags here, of dude with one of France’s greatest actresses, Catherine Deneuve. Hiphop fuckin took over, boy… if only it still had its balls.