Pharell Williams – G I R L (Review)

Before I get into this rather late review, I owe all of our dear readers an apology. I’ve been gone for so long and have left you all neglected. I could place the blame on the fact that very few interesting projects have dropped, or the fact that I’ve swapped discovering new artists in my free time for watching Netflix, or that this little thing called college is always going on. But there is no good enough excuse.  Let me make it up to you with a few new posts.

Last month, Mr. Music himself Pharrell Williams released his sophomore album G I R L. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of Pharrell’s work. Particularly his early work through N.E.R.D. and his production with artists like Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake. Anyone can tell you that Skateboard P isn’t really known for his own solo records, but 2013 was a big year for him with working on records like Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke.

I wouldn’t exactly call G I R L an easy listen. The lead single “Happy” from the Despicable Me 2 Soundtrack was a complete miss with me. Pharrell was trying to hard to embody a Motown Sound on this one. The album as a whole had sort of a plastic feel from start to finish. The only moments that stood out for me were on songs like “Gush” and “Lost queen.” I think we can all agree that Pharrell is a phenomenal producer, but not the best singer in the world. I was sort of feeling the groove on “Hunter,” but the fact remains that I’m struggling to find highlights in the album, or songs that I find myself wanting to listen to over and over again. Given the fact that this is a release from the same artist who was behind one of my all-time favorite albums In Search Of…, you can only imagine how disappointed I was. G I R L earns a 2/5 flies.