shufflist

[shufflist]

Seeing Sounds by N.E.R.D. (2008)

There isn't an album title that could be any more apt than Seeing Sounds by N.E.R.D., since they've always struck me as a group that looked and dressed exactly how they sounded. They were able to translate the swagger of their music into their fashion, or their fashion into their music, but whether the egg or the chicken came first, it's indisputable that N.E.R.D. always had a sense of fashion-forwardness. Pharrell Williams alone is a pop culture tastemaker himself, credited for bringing streetwear brands like A Bathing Ape into American hip-hop and namedropping Takashi Murakami in his lyrics way before everyone else fashioned bootleg replicas of his iconic rainbow flower prints.

(From left to right) Nigo, founder of Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape, Pharrell Williams, and Kanye West for Pharrell's fashion line Billionaire Boys' Club. Among the three most influential icons in American hip-hop fashion. On the right, Pharrell's studded "NERD" belt.

Photograph: James Devaney/Getty Images (left), zegalba/Tumblr (right)

But by this period of time, in 2008, trucker hats were circling back into snapbacks and the incorporation of rock instrumentation into rap was turning into a schtick people were unanimously leaving in the 2000s. Some say this record is a tad anachronistic, understandably so, with its funk and drum & bass foundation and record scratches that read to me as older than what it actually is. But listening to this record has made me realize that above anything else, N.E.R.D. in itself was a love project, and it was never about being ahead of the game, but having the opportunity to release experimental music for their cult following without worrying about its pop value. After all, why would they worry about riding a wave they started?

(From left to right) N.E.R.D.'s core members and childhood friends Pharrell Williams, Shay Haley, and Chad Hugo.

Photograph: Jim Cooper/AP

Seeing Sounds has infectious energy, groovy melodies, boyish lyrics (both a criticism and a compliment)—a perfect soundtrack for skateboarding. The large gorilla looming over the members on the album art reminded me of the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World where the lead band summons this gigantic yeti figure from their distortion pedal during a music battle (funny string of words, I know). It's roaring, it's loud, and it's chaotic—the type of energy I want to hear more in hip-hop. Again, a perfectly named album; you can quite see the sound. And sure, they were style over substance, but there are plenty of musicians with neither.

My favorite tracks: Everybody Nose, Windows, Spaz

You'll notice this isn't much of a review but in defense of the album instead because no matter what the critics say, this has charted #1 on my iPod shuffle.

[shufflist]

Wait, they don't love you like I love you, Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

...Quite literally, because I've taken this seemingly harmless TikTok trend personally.

I didn't think I'd ever be peeved about songs I grew up with suddenly gaining popularity on TikTok because, well, who am I to keep this music all to myself and second, should I really exhaust myself by policing what teens do these days? And to be fair, it's far from what you'd consider an obscure song. Maps was greatly appreciated during its time, showing positive reception from both mainstream and the critics, as well as other artists like Kelly Clarkson, Beyoncé, and the Black Eyed Peas, whose producers utilized parts of this song for their own (Since U Been Gone, Hold Up, and Meet Me Halfway, respectively). For goodness' sake, it's been on multiple video game soundtracks. No one was hiding song from the public, but that's besides the point. I can't help but feel like they've trampled on my heart with the Jersey club remix of this song (a genre which I have nothing against) accompanied by yet another appropriated TikTok dance choreo that's meant to be ironic (and eventually meaningless), as do most internet humor nowadays because sincerity is a rarity.

But the world doesn't revolve around me and I'm not about to let an internet fad strip off the song's poignance and ruin one of the most beautiful indie rock songs of all-time, just like how people who use TikTok to do a little dance won't let a bitter twenty-something hipster to ruin their fun.

The beauty of this song is not the just the hook, but Yeah Yeah Yeah's guitarist Nick Zinner who has a way of plucking my heartstrings. The glittering, palm-muted riff that introduces the song is subtle and atmospheric, like a chime that ripples throughout the verses, then powers up and breaks out into a raw guitar sound that complements Brian Chase's heart-thumping floor tom sound and imitates the almost-weeping manner of Karen O's vocals. "Maa-aaa-aaa-aaa-aaaps," she says, vulnerable and pleading. Best paired with "Y Control", YYY's song from the same album which Maps slowly transitions to and is as beautiful.

I urge people to have a moment of weakness, just like how this song is the peace you'll find in this album after a series of abrasive garage rock songs. Come into earnestness, even at the risk of seeming pretentious.

Karen O in the official music video of "Maps".

Maps—even amongst the crowd and your multiple instances of popularity—they'll never love you like I love you.

[shufflist]

Unsung Singer, Adam Schlesinger

I've only started to familiarize myself with Fountains of Wayne's founding member and primary songwriter Adam Schlesinger's body of work when I read news of his passing back in 2020. He was only 52 years old when he succumbed to COVID-19 complications. His band is known for their 2003 hit "Stacy's Mom", a cheeky pop rock tune written in the perspective of a young boy and his attraction towards his friend's mother. Looking back on this song's contemporaries and the whole era of novelty rock music your older brother would listen to (like that of the American Pie soundtrack, where Stacy's Mom was also featured on), you'd easily brush off Fountains of Wayne as another 2000s one-hit wonder band (guilty as charged). I've come to find out that they are anything but, and you owe it to Schlesinger's genius.

The band's self-titled album Fountains of Wayne basically encapsulates Schlesinger's signature power pop sound, and if you are unfamiliar with the genre, think somewhere in between rock and pop, characterized by classic rock band instrumentation and melodic, catchy vocals. Think The Beatles, but instead of '60s Britain, Fountains of Wayne paints a picture of ‘90s American suburban life and its mundanities with tongue-in-cheek lyrics that read like anecdotes, even to those who are greatly unfamiliar with it such as me who grew up in a crummy urban apartment in the Middle East, forever intrigued with the enigma of suburbia. And let's credit Chris Collingwood too now that we're at it: co-founder, co-writer, and vocalist of the band. Together with his vocals and variation of melodies peppier than most '90s alternative rock music and with heavier guitars than their pop pop counterparts, this record slid its way into my heart, and tagged along was its dorky but heartfelt appeal that reminded me of simpler times. Each song provides the sensation of watching a film but with the privilege of having both the movie and the soundtrack as one entity.

Fortunately for anyone who wants to listen to their albums that come after, this is what Schlesinger does best. Earnest but not sappy, humorous but not crude. What I enjoy most about his songwriting is his knack for writing "character-centered" songs about run-of-the-mill people that are just kind of wacky in their plainness: two friends with a failed business, a biker with fragile masculinity, an alcoholic salesman, and much more. This makes a lot of sense when you find out Schlesinger has written motion picture soundtracks as well. "Way Back Into Love" from the 2007 movie Music and Lyrics was a big hit, a song performed by Hugh Grant and Haley Bennett, along with millions of other Filipinos on their karaoke machines.

Funnily enough, the most notable films he worked on (Music and Lyrics, That Thing You Do!, Josie & the Pussycats) were all stories about fictional musicians.

I've yet to know whether or not he intentionally picked movies with a similar premise; all I can assume is that he loved to write about other people, and for other people. Sure, I barely knew the guy—but it seems like that in itself says a lot about what kind of person he was.

Adam Schlesinger in his youth.

Photograph: Kimberly Butler/The Life Images Collection/Getty Images