“Seeing Sounds” is the third album from Pharrell Williams and his rhythmically inclined band mates, otherwise known as N*E*R*D.
The first single “Everyone Nose” is the type of song that will start playing in your headphones and make those around you wonder if your second cup of coffee just kicked in. Whether or not you choose to pay attention to its clever word play, the song makes you want to get up and dance. In fact, that seems to be a general theme throughout the album. It’s as if they went into the studio and asked themselves what they could do to keep people moving. But despite this general theme, “Seeing Sounds” is a very rhythmically diverse album wherein each song yields a sound that definitively belongs to N*E*R*D. Whether you feel compelled to embrace 70s roller disco flashbacks (no matter what your age) while listening to “You Know What”, or take up skateboarding just to have something appropriate to do while listening to “Spaz”, each song on this album not only possesses a sound, but also a feel.
No matter what your appreciation for their particular brand of music may be, one would be hard pressed to deny the level of talent and expertise that went into every track on this album. Quite simply, these are guys that know how to make a good beat; and in place and time where that is something the youthful listener has come to appreciate, I have great expectations for this album.
~David Burch
