N*E*R*D: Fly Or Die

Williams and Hugo go appropriately wild on their delightfully strange second N*E*R*D album, Fly Or Die, which runs roughshod over genres and influences ranging from The Beatles to new wave to dirty blues to '70s rock. Lyrically, Williams has a Steely Dan-like fondness for misfits, runaways, stoners, and all-around fuck-ups. On the title track, he sings from the perspective of a frustrated schoolboy slacker who fantasizes about escaping the monotony of every teenager's true axis of evil: parents, work, and school. On the next track, "Jump," he's seemingly made the big leap and found, unsurprisingly, that his scary new freedom isn't that much better than the rules he left behind.

Pharrell's sometimes-strained falsetto isn't anywhere near smooth enough to make a line like "Her ass is a spaceship I want to ride" (from the first single, "She Wants To Move") sound anything but ridiculous. The super-producer/crooner's come-ons tend to be more creepy than sexy: He's the kind of determined suitor whose persistence seems equally likely to inspire reciprocated affection and restraining orders. Fly Or Die has its rough patches, but the liberating, anything-goes looseness that inevitably results in stretches of self-indulgence is precisely what makes the album, like its predecessor, so messy, vital, and fun.

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