N E R D Fly Or Die CD

Joel & Benji Madden are both members of the group Good Charlotte.

Additional personnel includes: Joel Madden, Benji Madden (vocals); Lenny Kravitz, Andrew Coleman (guitar); Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson (drums).

While often boundary-expanding, the ubiquitous beats of the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) are supremely radio-friendly. However, when Williams and Hugo are two-thirds of N.E.R.D. (alongside Shay), the genie is out of the bottle, and previously unimagined, genre-busting concoctions are unfurled. The second N.E.R.D. album is the product of gloriously schizophrenic genius, with acutely honed pop sensibilities. Leadoff single "She Wants to Move" features the most traditional Neptunes beat surrounded by a hyperactive rhythm section and never lets up. From there, the music wanders down a million paths, from Love-styled hippie balladry to Temptations/Sly funk-rock immediacy to dizzying Fishbone funk-punk.

N.E.R.D. also displays wry, observational lyricism. On "Wonderful Place," they forge a hallucinogenic landscape where "cartoons are turning into real life," weaving three or four stories into a parable about the troubled world. The more direct "Drill Sergeant" mixes in references to Orson Welles and Barnes & Noble into the chorus chant "I'm not going to war." Building upon the frenzied funk/rock/soul/punk/psychedelia of N.E.R.D.'s debut, FLY OR DIE should solidify the group as one of the most refreshing, intelligent, rising voices in pop music.

Unlike In Search Of..., originally made primarily on N.E.R.D.'s various machines and then reconfigured with assistance from funk-rock band Spymob, Fly or Die is kept almost entirely in-house. The ridiculous cover, along with first single "She Wants to Move" -- and its accompanying video, including a literal translation of the line "Her ass is a spaceship I want to ride" -- thankfully provide little indication of the album's true makeup. And the moments where the Star Trak hand sign gets flipped to a set of devil horns are mercifully fleeting, though "Backseat Love" is undoubtedly problematic -- it plays Dumberer to "She Wants to Move"'s Dumber. ("Lapdance" was Dumb.) The rest of the album isn't just noteworthy for subject matter that skips through child-parent relationship sketches, ecological reveries, and protest songs; the bright, bold Neptunes glaze that normally coats their chart-aimed singles of all stripes is applied to material that will leave many people baffled. The album sees N.E.R.D. rummaging through parts of their record collection that don't normally bubble to the surface in their production work. Most disarming of all is "Wonderful Place," a seven-minute trip divided into halves. The first shows a chipper Pharrell striding through a sunny meadow, marveling at the natural wonders of the planet in spite of its troubles; with a horn-punched chorus ("My soul's in my smile/Don't frown, just get up get up") and other subtle splashes of Baroque pop elements, it owes equally to Burt Bacharach and the Left Banke. This dissolves into a fading whistle, only to give rise to a dramatic, synthetically orchestral and acoustic-folk tale about a near-fatal family fishing trip. Any parent of the past, present, or near future will be stirred, especially once Pharrell goes falsetto to emphasize the relief of the nearly drowned baby being rescued by his mother. Instead of pausing for effec

Recorded at Hovercraft Recording Studios, Virginia Beach, Virginia and The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California.

N.E.R.D.: Pharrell, Chad, Shay.

Personnel: Joel Madden, Benji Madden (vocals); Lenny Kravitz, Andrew Coleman (guitar).

Audio Mixer: Serban Ghenea.

Recording information: Hovercraft Recording Studios, Virginia Beach, VA; The Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA.

Photographer: Sacha Waldman.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.Rolling Stone (4/15/04, p.147) - 3 stars out of 5 - "It's fascinating to hear these rap geniuses go undercover as a bar band you might hear rocking Journey covers in a bowling alley."
Entertainment Weekly (4/2/04, p.62) - "FLY OR DIE is craftier and more multilayered than its predecessor....[A] set of clever, complex, studio-crafted pop--complete with musicianly, smooth-jazz licks--that doesn't owe allegiance to any one genre." - Rating: A-
Uncut (p.91) - 5 stars out of 5 - "N*E*R*D can replicate machine hypersyncopation at the drop of a hi-hat. Prog-pop album of year."
Uncut (p.74) - Ranked #18 in Uncut's "Best New Albums of 2004" - "[A]n object lesson in eclectic art-rock....[T]his prog-pop classic reveal further depths of detail with every repeated play."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 - "This is an enthusiastic hymn to the terminally uncool, an un-ironic celebration of nerd-culture....They make a party you want to be invited to."