OVERALL RATING:

The music industry does not care how or what you do to make your records. They simply want it to fit their format; anything that is outside of that format is looked upon as risky or dangerous. Since their inception, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley have set out to destroy these boundaries of Hip-Hop and music alike. Seeing Sounds is their latest venture in sound, and this time around they are also attempting to capture our other senses as well.

Being that this is their second album featuring a home-grown live band; this brings people to expect that the kinks from Fly or Die will have been worked out and in some ways they are. The instrumentation is relatively crisp, but Pharrell has yet to evolve into the vocal leader that they so desperately need.

N*E*R*D - Everybody Nose

While Time For Some Action showcases anything but evidence of action, Spaz is a great record that could be regarded as the centerpiece that holds everything together; it lacks enough energy to hold up to that particular standard though. Act I as a whole isn’t necessarily chalked up as a lose though, with tracks like Windows, Everybody Nose, and the highly energetic Anti-Matter, the band seems to step up their game just in time to keep the listener interested.

Being that the front end of the album contains most of the up-tempo tracks, the mid and slow tempo tracks in Act II like Happy are exposed and left out to dry. Kill Joy tried to aid the tempo issues, but sadly is nothing more than above average filler material. Love Bomb is some what the dark horse of the album, but with nearly the entire album featuring a similar break down and build up song structure, Sooner or Later becomes something amazingly refreshing by simply having an unexpected guitar solo. While this album does have some rough patches, the only truly weak link is the last track of the album, Laugh About It. It sticks out like a sore thumb and has no redeeming qualities to mention.

Whether or not Seeing Sounds’ claims of triggering synesthesia are true or not remains to be conceived, but one thing is for sure though; this is a well put together album with quite a few above average songs. After all, this album and N*E*R*D all together were created with the fans in mind and most fans certainly will get something out of this album that is desirable. More Artists in the major music industry should be taking note from these guys, by forming a distinct sound that can be revered from long-time fans and critics alike.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.