Product Description

'Seeing Sounds' is the third album by genre-bending trio NERD. A more cosmic sounding album compared to their last ('Fly Or Die'), this is an aural treat for the listener. Combining textures and layers to a whole range of influences, from hip hop, RnB to rock and electro, this is the group's most audacious record. Includes the singles 'Spaz' and 'Everybody Nose'.

Track Listing

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3526 in Music
• Released on: 2008-06-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 55 minutes

Amazon.co.uk review
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

Customer Reviews

A return to form and more.
I loved NERD after getting into "Lapdance" from "In Search of..", buying the album out of curiosity and finding a hard core, funky rocky hip hop album straight out of left field. I was looking forward to more of the same on "Fly or Die" but was really disappointed by the album, which failed to deliver any great songs or even grooves outside of the hit single "She Wants To Move".

I was ready to give up on NERD after that until I saw them a few weeks ago playing live in London and was blown away by what a great live act they were. I decided to give "Fly.." another listen and buy "Seeing Sounds" after hearing some new songs that I did not recognise at the gig. On review, "Fly.." disappointed again and I was worried that "Seeing Sounds" might fail to deliver it's promise too.

I needn't have worried, as this album bangs from first to last! It's a rollercoaster ride of styles, grooves, beats, sounds and ideas that leans back towards the first album but blasts off into a whole new kaleidoscope of directions too. Each song is a collection of catchy hooks that are immediate but also seem to get better the more you listen (a rare trick!).

Other reviews have mentioned Prince influences, and they can be heard here (he is actually referenced directly by the band on a couple of songs), but this is the sort of album that Prince would have made in his heyday if he was born 10 years later and took De La Soul and Q Tip as influences as well as Hendrix and James Brown.

This album really has it all, from rock guitars to jazzy acoustic basslines and rave beats. If you love all kinds of music and want to hear something fresh and exciting, this is the cd for you. A must buy!

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.