| · The Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo put down their hip-hop beats once again for guitar licks, challenging the listener to try dancing to this music.
If Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo’s objective with these N.E.R.D. projects is to make music completely different from what they typically produce, they’ve succeeded. It’s as if they’re repenting for all the countless hip-hop and pop monsters they’ve produced (Justin Timberlake, Brittany Spears, Jay-Z, Usher to name a few) by releasing an album laced with guitar chops and hardly a standard 4/4 beat in sight.
There’s no escaping the quirkiness of this album, just as there’s no likelihood that a dance club will ever play any of these tracks (unless there are remixes involved, of course). "This is for the kids!" exclaims Williams on the title track. What he actually means is, "This is for the geeky, unhip, longing-to-be-with-the-in-crowd kids!" The Neptunes’ urban cool image is replaced by horn-rimmed glasses, Playstations and The Zit Remedy from Degrassi Junior High.
When it works, as on the swooning "Wonderful Place," they revive the best of ’60s pop as interpreted by the best of ’90s Japanese pop acts. When it falters, as it mostly does, Fly or Die morphs into an adolescent creature trying desperately to get laid.
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