N.E.R.D.

Take half this album and throw the rest in the crapper. Like a lot of great artists, the guys strike out repeatedly, crucifying themselves on idiot lyrics, tepid filler and adolescent (yet weirdly experimental) hip-hop. Yet in the interstices, you find incoherent but compelling stuff: the stiff march of "Everyone Nose" collapsing briefly as a guy tries to convince a girl to quit doing coke; "Sooner or Later"'s incandescent, Prince-worthy three-minute guitar solo; the soul-jazz/tango of "Yeah You." Plus, the album pays tribute to the neurological disorder synesthesia. Look it up.

While writing their third album, N.E.R.D. watched a Discovery Channel show about
synesthesia, a neurological disorder that causes people to experience sounds as colors or
as objects in their minds. Superproducers the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo)
and their rapping buddy Shay Haley were inspired to create music you could envision as a
live show. Does that creative concept work? Hard to say, but the results are exp... More >