N.E.R.D. "Nothing"

N.E.R.D. is well beyond the stage in their careers where they sell 100,000 records in one week. They're past the initial lovefest when everyone is jumping on their bandwagon as the next great thing. Truth be told, the hope for this group was always based on Pharrell and Chad Hugo's production skills as The Neptunes. But then the world heard Pharrell's falsetto and girls everywhere swooned and people mistook popularity for quality.

Of course the adoration wasn't completely undeserved. In Search Of... is one of the greatest debut albums ever and Fly or Die had a huge hit in "She Wants to Move". But then Pharrell went down the solo path recording with Snoop Dogg ("Beautiful") and putting out his own album. When the boys got back together 4 years later there was no longer a market for them.

Nothing has kind of an old-timey feel to it. Could be an interesting concept when done correctly but with these guys you expect groundbreaking and this is far from it.

Must hear: Hot-n-Fun (f. Nelly Furtado)

(Release Date: 11/2/10)