Released March 3, 2014
3 / 10
Favorites
Gush, Happy, Gust of Wind, Know Who You Are (with Alicia Keys)
Least Favorites
Marilyn Monroe, Brand New (with Justin Timberlake), Hunter, Come Get It Bae, Lost Queen, It Girl, Smile (Japanese edition bonus track)
Made on the heels of the commercial successes of ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Get Lucky’, “G I R L” was meant to consolidate Pharrell’s overtaking of the main stage from the depths of the studio he’d spend the bulk of his time honing his and others’ craft. Another commercial success no doubt, helped by the stellar performance of ‘Happy’ (made for the 'Despicable Me 2' soundtrack) all over the globe and 2 Grammys, the record’s celebratory tone turns sour on the regular. You’ll notice that the album was solely produced by Pharrell and all but two tracks were written by him and him only: after a strenuous exploration of its nuts and bolts, it appears that “G I R L” could’ve benefitted from the addition of another set of ears at its helm to steer it away from the traps laid by the falsetto-led funk it scoops so heavily from.
Publicly boxed in a “good guy” persona, Pharrell wants you to know he’s also a bad boy when he wants to - ‘Blurred Lines’ did a fine job with regards to this but that’s a bleep best forgotten from any artist’s catalog. ‘Gush’ comes across as one of the more sexually-charged cuts of the record (it starts with the line “Make the pussy just gush” after all - although words are voluntarily eaten up so the inattentive ear doesn’t register it). It’s one of the better songs of “G I R L” mainly because it’s not trying to go in a thousand directions at the same time, nor rely on a quick motif too heavily. Hints of Michael Jackson’s delivery style are dispersed here and there, and the track has N.E.R.D. written all over. Subtlety clearly isn’t the end goal here. And it certainly isn’t on ‘Come Get it Bae’ either. After all, lines such as “You wanna ride it, my motorcycle” leave little to the imagination - and kick off an array of uninspired metaphors linking sex and motor sports across this and other tracks. Demure Pharrell even manages to sound like the creepy uncle in the track’s intro: there’s a reason lines like “All of you girls standin’ together like that / I can’t take it” haven’t aged well in the short six years since their inception and it’s probably for the best. ‘Lost Queen’, the album’s needlessly long interlude, picks up on the image of Pharrell poised between an angel and a devil atop each of his shoulders and piles on (“Half of me is good, the other half nasty”). Nonetheless, all these attempts at eroding his polished façade still sound well-intentioned and uber-respectful of the object of his desire - unlike the Robin Thicke fiasco he was involved in months prior.
“G I R L” sounds enthused about taking a variety of paths to get from A to B but somehow systematically backtracks halfway through. In other words, “G I R L” is a tease. Cinematic opener ‘Marilyn Monroe’ juxtaposes a 30-piece string section led by Hans Zimmer and an enthralling beat while building up to a chorus that uses up all its gas before completion. An emergency landing leads to an anti-climatic sequence of ‘girl’ repetitions that fall short of the musical narrative drawn up by the track’s prior composition. It tries to compensate for those unsatisfying moment with a strange shift in melody partway that starts with the most random appearance by Kelly Osbourne. 'It Girl' is less ambitious but also leaves an aftertaste of incompleteness. It’s another appreciation song for his girl - and all girls by proxy (which seems to be the watchword of the album) - extending oceanic metaphors left and right with “waves wash[ing] all over [him]”, “tides, […] pull[ing] [him] back to sea” and mentions of seasickness. Half of the song sounds like a washed-down Prince impersonation with extra vocal quirks and amped elevator music and the other half serves as the album’s outro. This last part comes across as excruciatingly long, as it doesn’t bring anything particularly fresh to the table as the same riffs play in a loop along beachy percussions.
The half-baked quality of the melodies isn’t helped by lackluster vocal performances throughout the record, whether it’s two major artists struggling to wrap their voice around the proposed melody as in 'Brand New' or Pharrell clinking to his falsetto for dear life in 'Hunter'. Timberlake sounds like a pitchy young Michael Jackson in the former and Pharrell meets him at this vapid level. Harmonies sound like they needed one more take or twenty to get right and even the chorus feels bogged down by the vocal loops running in the back despite its euphoric horns. Subsequent 'Hunter’ is as painful to listen to from its first few seconds: Pharrell’s falsetto sounds so strained it’s then hard to focus on anything else than the vocals - and if there’s anything to see here, it’s not pretty. He plays with them plenty but no experiment pays off - even the spoken word part feels uncomfortable.
Something about “G I R L” feels rushed - it’s almost like Pharrell’s heart wasn’t in it. This impression arises in part from the fact so many of the tracks are rooted in short musical motif loops that should’ve been starting points for the songwriting and not the start, middle and end marks. Afore-mentioned 'Hunter' is a clear-cut example of this: the overbearing guitar motif puts out an impression of clutter in a track that is in dire need of airing out - which quickly proves exhausting leagues ahead of completion. 'Come Get It Bae' displays the same symptoms - and Miley’s background “HEY”s are contenders for the title of most annoying recurring sound on the album. On the other hand, 'Gust of Wind' features a prominent guitar motif but the track’s ebb and flows don’t let monotony set up camp. It’s dramatic, showcases flair, has the catchiest chorus on “G I R L” after ‘Happy’ (whose infectious groove led to it becoming the best-selling song of 2014) and undeniably features Pharrell’s best produced vocal performance of the entire album. It’s a shame that Pharrell audibly quickly ran out of air and came out with as unequal a bunch.
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