N*E*R*D is an alternative rock/funk/rap group which formed in Virginia Beac… Read Full Bio ↴N*E*R*D is an alternative rock/funk/rap group which formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States in 2001. The group consists of lead singer Pharrell Williams (vocals, keys, guitar), Chad Hugo (guitar, bass) and Shay Haley (drums).

Williams and Hugo are also known as the Grammy-winning production duo The Neptunes.

N*E*R*D's sound is a blend of rock, hip-hop, and R&B. N*E*R*D stands for "No-one Ever Really Dies".

Williams and Hugo originally recorded the band's debut album, In Search Of..., for European release in 2001 using similar digital production techniques used on Neptunes-produced records. However, they decided that if N*E*R*D was to be different from The Neptunes, it should sound different. This led to them re-recording the album (still titled In Search Of...) with the power pop band Spymob for worldwide release in 2002.

In Search Of... achieved moderate success in the United States.: the album reached number 59 on the Billboard 200; its first single, Lapdance, reached the top 40 on the rap charts; and its second single, Rock Star, reached the top 40 of the modern rock charts in the US and is still incredibly popular today. "Lapdance" also went top 40 in the Netherlands and its music video received heavy airplay on American MTV2. The album was well-received by critics even though it was not as successful as many of the Neptunes' productions for other artists.

The album won the second annual Shortlist Music Prize, awarded (by a group of musicians, journalists, and other music professionals) for Best Album that had sold less than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. The band performed at the show, bragging that the week prior to the ceremony, the album had, in fact, achieved gold status by selling over 500,000 units.

Fly or Die

The band recorded their second album Fly or Die during 2003. The band actually learned to play the tunes live, as Chad Hugo told MTV News on December 9, 2003: "We're the ones playing the instruments live this time. "I just started playing guitar last year so I'm learning as we go. Pharrell's playing drums. [Last time] we didn't have time to learn certain instruments so we got Spymob to help us out."

The band also recruited some assistance to record the album with Lenny Kravitz playing on the track Maybe (which has been featured in ads for XM Satellite Radio) and Joel Madden and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte playing on the track Jump. Several of the tracks discuss issues of particular concern to adolescents, for example Thrasher, which is about bullies; Drill Sergeant, about rebellion; and Backseat Love, which talks about first love.

Fly or Die went on sale on March 22, 2004. The album went top 10 in the USA, while the lead-off single, She Wants to Move, went top 5 in the UK, top 20 in Norway, Ireland, and Denmark, and top 30 in Australia and top 40 in the USA and the Netherlands. The music videos for "She Wants To Move" and its followup single, "Maybe", received strong support from music video stations globally.

In 2005, N.E.R.D ended their contract with Virgin Records. After becoming "hooked" on the energy from their fans, the band began recording their third studio album, spending their own money. Williams and Hugo later established Star Trak Entertainment, a subsidiary of Interscope Records.

Seeing Sounds

The third album from N*E*R*D is called Seeing Sounds. The album's title, as well as its content, revolves around the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia, the mixing of sensory modalities. After touring in promotion of their previous album, Fly or Die, N.E.R.D felt that album was too consistent. For their following album, they wanted to create the atmosphere of hyperactivity they knew their fans wanted.

The album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, selling 80,000 in its first week. It received mixed reviews, with critics lauding the production of the album. Some writers called the record N.E.R.D's best album to date, while others criticized Williams' singing and the album's content.

The album was released on June 10, 2008. The first single off the album, titled "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)" featured a video with fans as well as stars like Lindsay Lohan and Kanye West. In June 2008, the second single off the album, titled "Spaz", was used in a TV commercial for the Microsoft Zune. The third single "Sooner or Later" featured a video dedicated to America's economic crisis.

Nothing

In 2010, N.E.R.D announced the release of their fourth studio album entitled Nothing, which had a scheduled release date for September 7, 2010, but was pushed back to November 2, 2010. The first single from the album, "Hot-n-Fun" featuring Canadian recording artist Nelly Furtado, was released on May 18, 2010, on iTunes. It was released in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2010. On August 20, 2010, a track titled "Party People" leaked onto the internet. It was rumored to be the second single from the album. On September 28, 2010, they premiered another track from the album titled "Hypnotize U" on Late Show with David Letterman, produced by electronic music duo Daft Punk. On September 30, 2010, in an interview with Mark Hoppus on A Different Spin with Mark Hoppus, Pharrell explained the album cover as "a mix of so many things. The feathers represent the peace, and the helmet represents the war. It's like where we are right now. There's a lot of war, that people can't necessarily explain. The economy sucks, girls are still beautiful. We wanted to make music that reflected that. So people can look back twenty years from now, and say 'this is what was going on'". They then announced in the interview that the next two singles would be "I've Seen the Light" and "Hypnotize U". Pharrell described "Hypnotize U" as being "so different from the rest of the album", stating he was "very pleased because it serves a different purpose" in the album. On October 17, 2010, the standard edition and the deluxe edition of the album became available for pre-order on iTunes. Nothing debuted at number twenty one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 20,000 copies.

The albums concept was to create a time capsule about America's divisions, "so that ten years from now people remember that era." Sonically the album was inspired by the late 60's and early 70's psychedelic pop.
Pharrell explained: "I just wanted to make some good music that would affect people in a good way." Williams says it wasn't easy. N*E*R*D worked on "a previous body of work which was really good, but it wasn't timeless to me. I didn't feel like we were pushing ourselves as much as we could. We needed to perfect the sound, so we kept pushing the date back until it was right." The result includes "a lot of vintage sounds...The album is very '68-'72, '73, America meets Crosby, Stills & Nash meets Moody Blues."

Nothing received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics.

NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES

In 2013, Pharrell confirmed a N.E.R.D album was in progress, but also mentioned that the album would not be released that year due to the projects he was working on with other artists. He has also said the album will be "nature-based". The group reunited on December 26, 2014, to release the songs "Squeeze Me," "Patrick Star," and "Sandy Squirrel" for the film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.

On February 6, 2017, during an interview with BBC Radio 1, Pharrell stated that "it's feeling really good, really special" about the group's return.

In October 2017, the album was teased after posters were popping up on the side of streets, and by concertgoers at the 2017 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival.

It was preceded by three singles; "Lemon" with Rihanna, "1000" with Future, and "Don't Don't Do It!" with Kendrick Lamar.

The album was debuted with a live listening party during the first day at ComplexCon, thus revealing the tracklist. Pharrell revealed the album's cover art and release date via Instagram and Twitter on November 22, 2017.

NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES was released on December 15, 2017 through I Am Other and Columbia Records. It features guest appearances from Rihanna, André 3000, Kendrick Lamar, M.I.A., Gucci Mane, Wale, Future and Ed Sheeran among others. The album presented a radical change in sound compared to Nothing, heavily influenced by 80's New Wave and Post-Punk.
“Mr. Williams had been listening to the nervy jangle of post-punk and avant-punk: Gang of Four, Suicide, Devo, Talking Heads,” the Times reported in a December profile. “Once I identified all my pieces,” Williams said, “I was like, ‘Yo, I don’t want to make any more linear songs.’ ” N.E.R.D’s fifth album, “NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES,” released in December, delights in the aimless, anything-plays spirit of post-punk and New Wave—an era that Pharrell, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley watched firsthand as students of nineteen-eighties MTV."

To make sense of “NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES,” it helps to spend time with the cartoonish yelps of Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh on “Uncontrollable Urge” or David Byrne on “Life During Wartime.” Those front men both shout-sing somewhere higher than mid-range; Byrne has mentioned that, on “Once in a Lifetime,” he evoked the quivering timbre of a southern evangelical preacher whom he’d taped off of local radio. Fans are used to Pharrell’s many voices: the falsetto made famous on “Frontin’,” the breezy and conversational way that he rapped on “Mr. Me Too,” even the showman croon on “Happy.” But this latest voice, on such tracks as “Rollinem 7’s” and “ESP,” searches for a slightly goofball tone that offsets stone-serious messages, like “What possessed the slave to look in the river / Then he saw his true master, fuck is a ‘mister’?” and “Detach yourself, repack yourself / Be back yourself, and dream as yourself.” Many music fans winced at the sight of the new album’s credits, worried that its several guest slots meant a muddy, scattered N.E.R.D. project, but the most unexpected voice on it belongs to Pharrell, who finds new angles for his instrument almost fifteen years in.

This shape-shifting extends to the album’s production, an unrelenting tangle of stuttering rhythms, tempo changes, bridges, and every other misdirection the band can jam in. “Lemon,” the opening track, is the most generous to pop form, and “Deep Down Body Thurst” takes traditional N.E.R.D. piano chords and lays them under new, challenging shapes. You can hear shades of the song’s stomping guitar in the English Beat’s “Mirror in the Bathroom,” itself a mutation of the ska sound that took hold in the U.K. “Don’t Don’t Do It!” pushes through its hook in the same fashion: while the verses are smooth and bluesy, the chorus bursts open in three steamy riffs. (“Don’t, don’t do it!” “They’re gonna do it anyway!” “They. Are. Go-nna. Do. It anyway!”) “Kites” is just as sprawling, bobbing between a double-time punk stomp and trunk-melting trap as Kendrick Lamar and M.I.A. vent about flying over borders and walls on both ends of the beat.

NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES received positive reviews from music critics.

Chariot of Fire
NER*D Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Sorry that we took so long
You probably thought we forgot your song
It makes us smile just so you know
To see your eyes at our shows

I wrote this song while I was drunk
I hope you don't mind that it was wine
But you called me and said you didn't want your friends to know

But what if you had to go
What about then
What about then Mildred
Excuse me I mean music
What about then

[Chorus:]
Sweet chariot of fire
Gon' swing us all the way
Sing us a song today
Awayay, awayay awayay, awayay awayay, awayay awayay

Or maybe I'm in your car just driving away
And everything's o.k.

Float around where there's no need to walk
And there's nothing but thoughts and feeling no talk
Where there's golden bees and silver birds
And dreams are like shootin' come true and heard
And every moment feels like a spin Mildred
I mean, a spin music
So what about then

[Chorus:]

Or maybe I'm in your car just driving away
And everything's o.k.

Where every star flickers bright as sister
Just for the whisper commands your love
The bright sun in the sky all the flowers harmonize
And that's where your starry eyes will stand above

(Mildred x 6)
The fuck I mean Mildred
How the fuck you gonna tell me it's Mildred (I'm sorry) and not music
(Music)
Fuck it

[Chorus:]

Or maybe I'm in your car just driving away
And everything's o.k.

Overall Meaning

The song "Chariot of Fire" by N*E*R*D is a catchy tune with lyrics that touch upon a few key themes - friendship, romance, and escape. The opening stanza of the song is an apology for not paying attention to their friend's song. It is followed by a statement that seeing their friend's eyes light up at one of their shows makes them happy. The next verse talks about the genesis of the song - the writer created it when he was drunk on wine. He got a call from someone who was worried about their secrets getting out, and he wondered what would happen if they had to leave. The chorus of the song talks about a "sweet chariot of fire" that will swing everyone away and make everything better. The song ends with a verse that conjures up a world of wonder, where there are no pedestrians, only people who float around and communicate only through thoughts and feelings. It's a place where dreams come true, and every moment feels like a spin.

There are a few different interpretations of this song, and the lyrics are open to some interpretation, making it essential to find one that resonates best with you. One interpretation is that it is a song about friendship and love that speaks to the power of spending time with people who share your passions and quirks. It's about having a safe space where you can express yourself without fear of judgment. Another interpretation is that the song is about longing for escape - from everyday life, from secrets, from reality. The sweet chariot of fire is a metaphor that represents anything that can take us away from the trials and difficulties of the world. It suggests that there is always a better place to go, and if you look hard enough, you'll find it.

Line by Line Meaning

Sorry that we took so long
We apologize for the delay in releasing this song.

You probably thought we forgot your song
We understand if you thought we had forgotten about this song.

It makes us smile just so you know
We are happy to see you enjoying our music.

To see your eyes at our shows
The sight of you enjoying our shows is fulfilling.

I wrote this song while I was drunk
This song was written while under the influence of alcohol.

I hope you don't mind that it was wine
We hope you do not mind that our creative process involved drinking wine.

But you called me and said you didn't want your friends to know
We received a call from someone who did not want to be associated with our music publicly.

But what if you had to go
However, what if that person had to leave?

What about then
What would happen in that scenario?

What about then Mildred
We are referring back to the scenario previously mentioned.

Excuse me I mean music
We apologize for the error of mentioning the wrong name earlier, we meant to say music.

[Chorus:] Sweet chariot of fire
The metaphorical 'sweet chariot of fire' will carry us to our destination.

Gon' swing us all the way
We will be taken to our destination with ease.

Sing us a song today
The 'chariot of fire' will inspire us to create and sing a song.

Awayay, awayay awayay, awayay awayay, awayay awayay
These are nonsensical lyrics intended to fit the rhythm of the song.

Or maybe I'm in your car just driving away
We imagine a scenario where we are in a car, driving away.

And everything's o.k.
In that scenario, everything feels alright.

Float around where there's no need to walk
We envision a place where we can exist without needing to physically move our bodies.

And there's nothing but thoughts and feeling no talk
This imaginary place is quiet and peaceful, with only thoughts and feelings present.

Where there's golden bees and silver birds
This imagined place is full of beautiful and fantastical creatures.

And dreams are like shootin' come true and heard
In this place, our dreams would feel achievable and heard.

And every moment feels like a spin Mildred
Every moment in this imagined place feels like a joyful spin, as if we are on a carnival ride.

I mean, a spin music
Rephrasing to correct the previous mistake of using the wrong name.

[Chorus:]
Repeating the chorus for emphasis.

Where every star flickers bright as sister
This imaginary place has stars that twinkle with a brightness similar to that of a sister star.

Just for the whisper commands your love
The beauty of these stars seems to command one's love.

The bright sun in the sky all the flowers harmonize
The sun and flowers in this imaginary place seem to work in harmony.

And that's where your starry eyes will stand above
In this fantastical place, one's eyes shine like stars above all else.

(Mildred x 6)
Nonsensical repetition of the wrong name used earlier.

The fuck I mean Mildred
We acknowledge using the wrong name and express frustration with ourselves.

How the fuck you gonna tell me it's Mildred (I'm sorry) and not music
We express frustration for having made the mistake of using the wrong name, and apologize for the error.

[Chorus:]
Repeating the chorus for emphasis.

Or maybe I'm in your car just driving away
Repeating an earlier verse.

And everything's o.k.
Repeating an earlier verse.

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: CHAD HUGO, PHARRELL WILLIAMS, PHARRELL L WILLIAMS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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