No One Ever Really Dies

While it would be easy to get lost in the eclecticism of the album, that’s frankly what makes N.E.R.D the group they are.

Once a groove machine that favored the warmth of live instruments, N.E.R.D has roughed up its sound to match these themes; No_One Ever Really Dies is full of heaving beats and harsh digital textures that catch the day’s chaotic spirit in the same way that Williams’ and Hugo’s flashy production work as the Neptunes reflected the prosperity of the post-bling era.

The energy level is high and restless, in a near-permanent state of agitation, heightened with machine beats that judder and bounce, synthesizers that plink and probe, and Williams' animated protestations. The rollicking temperament gives all the material, and that includes "Don't Don't Do It!," regarding the fatal police shooting of Keith Scott, a replayable quality.

Williams and Hugo's unerring ability to transform a few notes into a sharply mesmeric riff laces their most experimental work yet with immediacy. Alive and well, N.E.R.D. have come back swinging. [Jan 2018, p.111]

As anarchic as it may seem on first listen, No_One Every Really Dies smoothes out a little more with each play. It's a strong comeback for the daring trio.

The results are impressive, the sound of Williams and Hugo on their boundary-pushing A-game.

This is an album full of what another killer track – Secret Life of Tigers – calls “serotonin overload!” – a flow-state that not even a perky reggae track featuring Ed Sheeran (Lifting You) can dim.

If the album title means anything, it’s that all of these major talents are still here. In fact, they’re stronger than ever.

Some may miss the more rock-influenced days of the group's debut, but Pharrell's more recent taste rules here. It's for the better. NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES plays like an album length party, with no groove that won't make you want to get off the couch and dance.

Not everything is great--in particular “Lifting You” with Ed Sheeran is about as limp as you’d expect--but even the clumsier moments feel relevant and contemporary. [Feb 2018, p.51]

The fifth N.E.R.D LP, and first since 2010's forgettable Nothing, feels urgent in a way their music never has, fitting our political moment while remaining as stylistically looped-out as ever.

The album’s first half sounds relatively strong. ... But No_One Ever Really Dies runs into a wall midway through, as old ideas rear their heads like those nobbly-headed creatures in Whac-a-Mole.

Despite the recruitment drive, it's another curious case of history repeating itself: N.E.R.D setting their phasers to stun, but only intermittently finding the target. [Feb 2018, p.91]

It’s a weird fucking album, in other words, neither as crowd-pleasing as it should be nor as experimental as it wants to be. The drums sound great, though, and the Rihanna track is as good as N.E.R.D. gets.

The trio’s meandering avant-rap is somehow more encumbered by its lack of ideas than its lack of editorial savvy.