N.E.R.D.: Seeing Sounds

The spare pop precision The Neptunes bring as

superstar producers goes out the window whenever Pharrell Williams and Chad

Hugo team up with rapper Shae Haley for their unpredictable hip-hop rock band

N.E.R.D. The bizarro psychedelic soul of 2004's Fly Or Die turned off some hooked in

by N.E.R.D's relatively straightforward debut In Search Of, but that record's playful

adventurousness obviously still appeals to N.E.R.D., which gets even weirder on

the new Seeing Sounds. With a jazz-piano breakdown and grating vocal hook about

vacant club girls lining up to sniff blow, the single "Everybody Nose" somehow

snatches success from the jaws of humiliating defeat, ingratiating itself in

spite of seemingly fighting like hell not to. The rest of Seeing Sounds similarly overcomes its

inherent haphazardness. Williams should sound more ridiculous than he does when

he bellows "Fuck what the government says!" over mariachi horns and John Lennon

piano chords on "Love Bomb." But N.E.R.D.'s gonzo commitment to crossing genre

boundaries in sometimes silly, nonsensical ways remains surprisingly tenable.