N.E.R.D.’s grooves high-energy sounds
A-N.E.R.D. No_One Ever Really Dies
Columbia
In the seven years since N.E.R.D.’s last album, frontman Pharrell Williams has blossomed into a full-fledged superstar. He’s not just happy, he’s a cultural force — with his own fashion line and high-profile songwriting and production gigs too numerous to mention.
His expanded ambitions are broadly displayed on No_One Ever Really Dies (Columbia), with childhood pals Chad Hugo and Shay Haley offering groovy grounding as a foundation.
“Lemon,” which features Rihanna boldly rapping, is a straightup stunner, taking the kind of infectious groove Williams and Hugo used to craft regularly as The Neptunes and raising it to new heights with high-flying, high-concept lyrics.
The potent “1000” follows a similarly formidable path, moving from Devo-influenced, frenetic new wave on the verses to a swaggering trap groove in the bridge and back again. “Don’t Don’t Do It” features them bouncing between a lilting, island-tinged groove and something more menacing, like a dark cloud spoiling a sunny day.
Throughout the album, N.E.R.D. takes high-energy sounds that represent hard work and channels them into confident, cool grooves that signify success.
Even when the trio seems to be fooling around, like in the goodtime closer “Lifting You,” they still have a higher purpose in mind. “Lightning Fire Magic Prayer” takes the escapist disco that Pharrell forged with Daft Punk and applies it to a more spiritual discussion.
N.E.R.D.’s previous albums have often seemed overstuffed with ideas, but this time they have learned how to serve the big picture.
Hot tracks: “1000,” “Don’t Don’t Do It,” “Lemon”
B- Jaden Smith Syre MSFTS Music/Roc Nation
First, forget that Syre is the debut album from one of Will Smith’s kids, Jaden: a young actor and singer-rapper in his own right who has recorded many a guest feature and mixtape. If you’re not paying attention to birthright, Syre is a deliciously low-key, exquisitely eccentric — even cinematic — hip-hop nu-soul effort.
Half of Syre was co-produced by Norwegian songwriter Lido (Chance the Rapper, Halsey), and there’s a woozy electronic film to the proceedings, whether it’s the slow, filmic four-part suite “B,” “L,” “U,” “E,” (featuring haunting female vocals from sister Willow), or the rickety atmospheric rap of “Breakfast” featuring rough soul mouthpiece A$AP Rocky. Whether on the Lido tracks or beyond — the spacey, low-slung “Watch Me,” the wonky, thumping “Batman” — Smith’s scattered lyrics are best rendered in his deepest, sing-songy manner. His attempt at vocalizing on the caramel jazzy “Fallen” is fine as wine, as his baritone register tickles an electric piano’s tinkling.
Then there are wrong songs, such as the third-rate Kanye crib “Watch Me” (OK, he samples Yeezy’s “Black Skinhead”) and the miserably screechy “Icon,” which samples “The Hi De Ho Man” and finds Smith’s voice and lyrics in a dumb, too-high place.
Syre is good, not great, and certainly promising for the 19-year-old Smith. Just keep it low-down and deep.
Hot tracks: “Breakfast,” “Watch Me,” “Fallen” — A.D. AMOROSI The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)
B Bob Seger I Knew You When Capitol
Bob Seger has some fallen peers on his mind. I Knew You
When is dedicated to Glenn Frey, who is also the subject of “Glenn Song”: “You were young, you were bold/And you loved your rock and soul.” The song “Blue Ridge” is likewise dedicated to Little Feat’s Richie Hayward, who drummed on the track and others on the album. Seger also delivers songs by Lou Reed (“Busload of Faith”) and Leonard Cohen (“Democracy”), pointed choices meant to serve as commentary on the times.
Seger, 72, is often in a reflective mood, with numbers such as the title song and “Forward Into the Past” grappling with the distance between youthful idealism and the sober realities of maturity. Throughout he never strays far from his solid and straightforward heartland rock. It can be lumbering and florid (“The Sea Within”), but it can also move like a “Runaway Train.”
Hot tracks: “Forward Into the Past,” “Runaway Train,” “Democracy” — NICK CRISTIANO The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)
B+ Bjork Utopia One Little Indian
Bjork albums are often easier to admire than to love. She is a canny artist who chooses a stark sonic palette and theme for each project (strings for 2015’s discomforting Vulnicura; voices for 2004’s lovely
Medulla), but sometimes the concepts make longer-lasting impressions than the songs themselves. Utopia is still rigorously conceptual — it’s full of flutes, birdsong, human choirs and abrupt electronic sounds (she again collaborates with the producer Arca) — but, as its title suggests, it’s inviting and idealistic.
Utopia finds Bjork embracing hope and love in songs with unusual contours but emphatic messages. Her voice swoops and soars, rarely settling into a distinct chorus or refrain but always conveying earnest emotion. “I care for you,” she repeats in “The Gate,” a hymn-like song full of space and depth. “Imagine a future and be in it,” she sings in the floating, transcendent “Future Forever.” This is future-forward music, slightly unmoored but beautiful.
Hot tracks: “The Gate,” “Future Forever” — STEVE KLINGE The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)