A Closer Look at Pharrell Williams’ N.E.R.D.

It’s worth remembering that in the not-too-distant past, Pharrell Williams was a long way from his current position as king of all he surveys. Having produced a string of sublime noughties pop classics for the likes of Kelis, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake and Jay Z, Williams and his production partner in The Neptunes, Chad Hugo, had seen the zeitgeist-defining hits dry up.

Famed for their ingenious, skeletal electro-funk production style - heavily influenced by Prince - The Neptunes’ output no longer seemed to possess the same creative flair, and there was a feeling that the culture had simply moved on from their once ground-breaking aesthetic. However, that was all to change with Daft Punk’s 2013 global smash ‘Get Lucky’, which again catapulted Pharrell (and the tune’s other guest star Nile Rodgers) back into the pop premier league.

In conjunction with the other mega-hit produced by the Daft Punk/Pharrell/Rodgers dream team, ‘Lose Yourself To Dance’, and the biggest hit of Pharrell’s career, ‘Happy’ (penned for the soundtrack of Despicable Me 2), the Neptunes man was restored to his previous position as one of the most sought-after songwriters and producers on the planet.

It was in this climate that Williams and Hugo decided to reactivate N.E.R.D, the band they had formed for their own musical output. The group had unfortunately proven to be yet another casualty of The Neptunes’ creative and commercial slump; in 2010 N.E.R.D released Nothing - which was exactly what the album did. But with his stock at an all-time high, Williams roped in a ludicrous collection of his A-list friends and collaborators for the band’s comeback album, last year’s No One Ever Really Dies. Among the glittering cast were - deep breath - Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Cara Delevingne, M.I.A., Thundercat and Andre 3000. Not to mention, er, Ed Sheeran (chosen because Williams felt the track on which he appears, ‘Lifting You’, had an Irish feel).

Showered with critical praise, the album also yielded a bona fide hit in ‘Lemon’, a collaboration with Rihanna that proved to be one of the tunes of the year. Assembled and produced by Williams and Hugo - with the group rounded out by third member Shay Haley - No One Ever Really Dies was a timely reminder of N.E.R.D’s brilliance, which has been evident from the very start. Beginning with its superb cover - a young man sitting on a sofa lost in a video game - their 2001 debut, In Search Of, was a wonderfully bratty expression of teen punk rebellion. Nowhere was this better expressed than on the album’s first track, the instant classic hit ‘Lapdance’. Later given a characteristically punishing remix by Trent Reznor, the juddering slice of electro-funk was a gleeful “fuck you” to authority, convention and - especially - wanker politicians, who were compared to strippers alongside further imaginative insults.

Amidst an avalanche of provocative imagery - which included the group opening fire on establishment types and getting stoned during the subsequent court appearance - there were also references to flag-burning, as well as relentless profanity. It was unquestionably a work of genius. In Search Of was ultimately certified gold Stateside, a feat again achieved by its follow-up, , which also gate-crashed the upper end of the charts in the US, Ireland and the UK. The standout number was ‘She Wants To Move’, an electrifying dance-rocker that enjoyed considerable chart action internationally.

N.E.R.D’s final bow before their commercial dip was 2008’s Seeing Sounds, the centrepiece of which was ‘Sooner Or Later’, a truly stunning soul-rock epic that would have done Prince or U2 proud. Just to make the band’s Electric Picnic headliner even more exciting, meanwhile, in addition to the expected quotient of N.E.R.D material, the band are also throwing in some of the monster hits from The Neptunes’ phenomenal catalogue, including Snoop’s ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’, Gwen Stefani’s ‘Hollaback Girl’ and ‘Get Lucky’.

Interviewing LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy a few years ago, I put it to him that his own DFA production team (who remixed ‘She Even Wants To Move’) were The Neptunes’ only competition as the best producers of the past 20 years. Murphy nodded, although rightly added that Timbaland should be in the mix as well. Fittingly, N.E.R.D now follow in LCD’s footsteps and headline Electric Picnic (in another neat tie-in, their collaborator Lamar is also one of the bill-toppers). Expect their set to be a dazzling collision of scintillating grooves, memorable choruses and megawatt charisma. It should all make for another classic headlining performance in Stradbally.