With his G I R L, Pharrell Williams delivers a sophomore solo album full of giddy, oft-kilter soundscapes and exuberantly experimental chords.
And a full six days before it officially drops, fans can stream the album now on iTunes Radio.
The 10-song set starts off with the violin-heavy “Marilyn Monroe,” where the “Get Lucky” singer dives headfirst into a limpid pool of synth beats and breaststrokes the track with his signature falsetto. Skateboard P then segues into the Justin Timberlake-assisted “Brand New” with a plucking guitar riff that slowly snakes into a layered symphony of instrumentation as he duels with JT.
Four songs in comes the erotic “Gush,” which allows Pharrell to reveal his inner freak with lines like, “Give me that sweet, that nasty, that gushy stuff.” On “Happy,” it’s easy to forget how much the song has dominated radio and let loose into its unadulterated glee.
“Come Get It Bae,” which features Miley Cyrus, employs a hypnotic handclap-laced beat reminiscent of early Neptunes production. Pharrell volleys with his younger sidekick and successfully conveys a sense of romantic adventure, “You wanna ride it, my motorcycle / You got a license, well you got a right to / Wanna pop a wheelie, don’t try to hard to, cuz girl I like you.”
Daft Punk (“Gust of Wind”) and Alicia Keys (“Know Who You Are”) also feature on the LP, which is an exercise in succinctness at just over 46 minutes long.
G I R L is available for pre-order now on iTunes.
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