BAM!
N.E.R.D - "She Wants To Move"
With great reluctance, I think I have to say that I don't like the new big Neptunes single. It's not that they're treading water like some would say. It's more that they're employing a strategy that completely bypasses what makes their songs so effective. The Neptunes have always been at their best when they focus on a simple, killer beat and work all the cute little instrumental embellishments and vocal interjections around that. At first, most great Neptunes tracks sound like they go absolutely nowhere, meandering along, seemingly emphasizing nothing. It's only when you begin to anticipate all the hooks and subtle momentum shifts that you succumb to the allure of the Neptunes formula. Your body synchs to the bass drum while your limbs try to keep up with each and every rhythmic nuance. All the random handclaps, pants, and monosyllabic yelps finally begin to make sense and you begin to realize that all the auteur pop futurist claims are spot on. With that said, it's surprising that "She Wants To Move" doesn't quite stack up, considering it contains enough of these elements to make it at least a typical Neptunes-by-number track, which is usually a good thing. The problem lies in the Neptunes' decision to abandon the usual highly syncopated, twitch inducing beat and instead go with a compromised, essentially watered-down, rock/hip-hop crossover rhythmic backbone, complete with tribal drums and generic guitar riffs. Combined with all the other Neptunes' trademark signifiers (again, we're back to the handclaps, pants and yelps), this track becomes almost laughable. I wish they would just abandon this infatuation with live instrumentation and the "rock" sound, because it really is ruining a lot of their songs (see
In Search Of...). Hopefully this isn't wholly representative of their new album due in March or I fear this song may be signalling a slow, painful descent into irrelevance and dare I say it (I REALLY don't want to say it), self parody.
