Fly Or Die

Pish

I think I got whiplash from listening to this off the back of a run of brilliant albums. Maybe I was just hot and tired when I listened to this. I really dislikes this, which surprises me somewhat because the blend of punk, hip-hop, and pop sounds so interesting to me. But unfortunately I just didn't get anything from it and found it actively annoying at times. Sorry :( Favourites: Thrasher?

Not sure why this album is on the list. most songs are pretty sophomoric. Voices suck, often unintentionally offkey. Some guitar but no real memorable riffs. The songs wander around several different genres but doesn't really commit to any particular theme, leaving the listener pretty lost and disappointed. Maybe this is only memorable as an early Pharrell sighting.

2.5/10

That was tough

20 years later and nobody listens to this shit. It was weak at the time, and it certainly hasn't aged well. I wonder, were ANY of the curators of this list hip-hop fans??!?!?

Did the editors of the list actually listen this album? I assume not because had they, it wouldn't have been included.

This album blows. It’s bad hip hop combined with bad pop combined with bad rock combined with terrible lyrics. Wonderful place was the only pseudo-redemption. As an American, this record made me truly believe no good American music was released in the early 2000s if this is what’s on the list. Truly hated it. Couldn’t even finish multiple songs. Hard to find many positives for me. 1/5

Had to resort to a relative ratings for this. Would I rather listen to Alanis (2 stars) or this? Alanis is answer. Would I rather listen to Mr Manson (1 star) or this? Mr Manson is the answer. Since I am not a man, but a robot who values consistency over all else, a one (1) star this has to be.

I just could not do it, one listen was enough. I did not need a second listening of musical gum and nuts. I was really looking forward to this though, True Crime Streets of LA had a song of theirs on the soundtrack I've always really liked but good lord, this was terrible.

Half way through this project and this may be the worst album so far. If it was parody I would get it a little, it would still be bad but at least it would make sense who it's bad.

Listening notes: Lame and annoying. Boring. Not inspiring. I guess there is a reason I’ve never heard of this band, ever. And I like Pharrell, so good for him that he escaped this mess.

I like the ideas but the end product was not for me. Mostly unenjoyable melodically and lyrically.

Ha, glih včer je bil v pogovoru omenjen Pharrell Williams. Hm. Definitivno se vsaj en komad spomnim, oz bolj video od komada "She Wants To Move". Ostalo je a mystery. Do zdaj, očitno. Ful drums heavy, but not in a good way. Do zdej mi je po pravic povedan tak vajb, k da bi trije najstniki, en od njih zna bobne, posnel album, kjer morjo vsi na vseh komadih met vokale. (Lol, berem wiki zj in literally piše, da so se za ta album naučil igrat glasbila. In pa "Several of tracks concern issues of particular concern to adolescents" - dj nehi no, kok se počutim validated) Evo, komad, ki ga poznam. Lol, pozabila sm na random lajanje na začetku. O fak, in besedilo "her ass is a space ship I want to ride". Ok. Ne vem, a je kle nostalgija močna, a kva, ampak bass line mi je še zmer kul. Fak, ker whiplash je začetek naslednjega komada ("Breakout"). Najbl indie rock sounding, z whiny vokali. A se men blede, a Pharrell velikrat zafuša k poje? O boh, k nek shitty srednješolski band ("Drill Sergeant"). Še 4 komadi... Prilezla do zadnjega. Je pa 8 minut. Ugh, ne ni, hidden komad je, zj mam tišino že kako minuto. When will it start? When will it end?!

Shite

What starts as an inoffensive hip hop album, that sounds like it was engineered in a lab to appeal to the early 2000s Kerrang! crown, quickly gets boring. Then, as you tune into the truly terrible lyrics, crashes and burns. If the album title was a question I’d choose “die”.

Pharrell Williams was AI slop before AI so congrats for that. Back to wondering why I’m listening to albums from this generator. 1/3 have been garbage.

Klarte ikke å høre ferdig engang, elendig album

I didn’t like this album. Nothing about it grabbed me.

very questionable lyrics

Yuck.

I find this unlistenable.

Mediocre 2000s production blandness. God its dull.

not for me

1.5 stars I don’t really feel like there was anything that redeemed this one. There wasn’t a single stand out track. The instrumentation is simplistic. This doesn’t belong anywhere near this list.

Seriously have no idea how this made the list. Nothing going for this one. Name fits.

The music on this record is mildly interesting though mostly derivative pop/rock in the same ballpark as Lenny Kravitz (who shows up on a couple of tracks, unfortunately). However, the villain here is the dreadful, off-key singing which, combined with the no-effort lyrics, totally torpedoes this ship.

"Fly or Die" is the second studio album by American rap and rock band N.E.R.D. Art rock and progressive pop are the Wiki-listed genres. N.E.R.D. was a side project of the production duo, the Neptunes, consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. On this album, Williams is lead vocalist and plays piano, keyboards, drums and percussion. Chad Hugo plays guitars, piano, keyboards, saxophone and bass and sings backing vocals. The third member, Shay Haley, plays drums, percussion and sings lead and backing vocals. Additional musicians included Lenny Kravitz and Questlove. The album had mixed reviews and, commercially, it reached #6 on the US Billboard 200 and #4 on the UK Album Chart. A down-tuned guitar riff and rock drums open the album in "Don't Worry About It." Pharrell Williams in a falsetto declaring she's bad ass which is repeated in the chorus. An attempt at Prince. The first single "She Wants to Move" starts with a dog barking. Loud drums and bass. An acoustic Spanish guitar and handclaps. Williams stating "She's sexy" and coming up with the awesome lyric "Her ass is a spaceship I want to ride." The second single "Maybe" features Lenny Kravitz with guitar riffs and a short guitar solo. A prancing piano and marching drums. Jazzy in spots but really an attempt at late 60's Beatles' pop pyschedelia. I have a headache. This is exhibit A of why editor/writer Robert Dimery of "1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" has had a very inconsistent and constant rotating selection of albums from the 2000's. Why would you include this album? Trying to be too "cutesy" and ahead of the critical curve? Lots of production, overproduction. There's lead, backing, noise and echoing vocals. Layered instrumentation of every kind. Moments of heavy guitar, loud drums, poppy psychedelia, strings, prog, hip hop and much more to my dismay. There are moments of catchy pop and decent early 70's soul which are nearly taken away by the overproduction. This album got more irritating the longer I listened to it. Do yourself a favor and grab nearly any Prince album from the 1980's and put it on instead of this.

nah

Like someone frantically slapping mismatched paint onto a wall while the music blares in the background, this experimental pop-rock album lurches between funk, rock, and electronic elements without finding coherence, its inventive rhythms and crunchy guitars lost in the rush. The vocals posture with attitude rather than precision, and the lyrics gesture toward rebellion and individuality but rarely dig deeper than surface-level swagger. The resulting mess is energetic but unfocused, leaving more splatter than substance.

Insupportable

Bland and boring. I didn’t enjoy a single track.

It took maybe the better part of one minute for me to figure out I hated this. The guitar here feels like it’s lifeless most of the time and I pretty much despise all of Pharrell Williams’ vocal inflections that he uses throughout the album. It’s not like the lyrics are anything special. I know comparisons are generally not too fair, but this album came out the same year as The College Dropout, and I couldn’t help but think about how much I’d rather listen to that album than this one. “Backseat Love” (probably the worst song on the record that I had to pause midway through because it was so bad) made me think of how much I’d rather listen to the indie rock group The Backseat Lovers. I think that “Jump”, “Breakout” are tolerable, while “Drill Sergeant” (without the hidden track) and “Maybe” are actually good. Well, when my experience with an album is so poor that I can only think about other albums I’d rather listen to, it’s no shocker that it’s going to get a 1/5. Currently, it will end up as #2 lowest rated album, still decently ahead of 1989.

I was walking, down the street Saw this girl, she smell so sweet ....Hey baby... She start running, so I could chase How they get them saffires, in yo face ....Hey baby... So we start walking, and holding hands But she don't know, that daddy got plans I'm gon' get her, in my car In the backseat, show her a rock star She said, "I been hugged, and I been kissed But ain't no other boy, make me feel like this." ....I know baby... So then she starts screaming, and reaching for the door "Daddy I ain't never felt this before!" Stay in the car, put the windows up No seatbelt, no need to buckle up Emergency brakes, no need for the clutch But wait... ah, don't get a ticket girl!

Fly or Die by NERD shouldn’t have been on this list. This attempt at a second album is a major bomb. The two singles on this album are barely memorable. The faux-jazz vibes they’re trying to manufacture aren’t doing it. Pharrell is a genius producer for like 40 years, and during the last 25, I have come to really dislike his whole “wannabe Curtis Mayfield” vocal stylings (save for “Frontin’”, that song fucks.) Lyrically this album is like choppy middle school poetry.

Can’t stand this.

Progressive R&B, funk rock, neo-soul, art rock and rap rock with Lenny Kravitz and the geezers from Good Charlotte featuring on tracks? I don't think an impressionable 11 year old me would've found that even remotely appealing, let alone now. It's decidedly average at all of those styles at best, and insufferable at its worst. They clearly had no one in their ear telling them "no", and somehow even managed to swindle a contract with Virgin Records. It beggars belief.

A move away from the usual hip hop style to a rock/soul approach. Ambitious but inconsistent. I found the blended genres very taxing to listen too.

Ferrell's first project....which I think I remembered at some point 20 years ago. Not my flavor of riprock. 1 star.

How does an act this bad get one album, let alone a second. 0 stars if I could.

An example of an album that immediately gets under your skin and doesn't come out. 2

I'm a real nerd and this music isn't for me. While not great, the opener "Don't Worry About It" hinted at things settling on a two-star review. But the deeper we go with Fly or Die, the more insufferable it becomes. Truly abysmal. Including an album like this makes me question the validity of the whole "albums you must hear before you die" concept. Honestly, some sounds are best left buried.

can't possibly be one of the top 1001 records

Don’t like this.

Three of the worst genres of the early 2000s: pop-rock, pop-rap and Rock-rap. this album is all three, and was doomed to fade away as irrelevant as soon as the popraprock fad ended. Here is my list of grievances with this album. 1) the cover is egregious. I'm someone who enjoys a album art, but this is on another level 2) the songs are incredibly repetitive 3) there is no attempt to sequence the album, it's like a mix of bad standalone singles 4) while Pharrell's voice is pretty good, all of the other features are not well used 5) four hidden tracks do NOT make for an interesting album, it's just tedious 6) again, popraprock is an awful genre. 1/5

Didn’t really get a hold on me

‘Thrasher’ just about sums up this album. And I don't mean the track name (I refuse to call it a song). 1

This album feels messy, like a high school project band where each person made music separately, put it together without changes, and that's what they turned in.

Doesn't play on my apple music.

Well, I can say that I listened to this and it was an album. With music. It played and people sang and played instruments. But it was definitely not “good”, whatever that means. Now excuse me while I find copies of this to throw in the garbage so it can’t hurt anyone any more with it’s mediocrity.

Not much of a hip hop person

Serious Tower Records bargain bin vibes with this one. Really terrible, I wasn't impressed with anything that I heard on this one. Hard pass, won't be back.

There was definitely some potential, but not realized.

Sorta sounds like the cover. I have a feeling this wasn't intended for 51-year-old retired dudes. Not terribly offensive but mildly annoying.

First song was good. Not a fan of the rest. 3/10

This was nearly unlistenable to me. I hear the lyrics, I hear the point, I hear the instrumentals, the melodies etc etc - I hate it, all of it. I did not like this one bit. Every aspect of it was like taking an angle grinder to my brain and felt clunky and hollow. It felt like the musical equivalent of a melodramatic teen movie with superficial quandaries and problems communicated through bad and rigid acting. It wanted to make a point but instead of a spear we got a baseball bat. Fly Or Die and Drill Sergeant are the best examples of this. I happen to really dislike repetition in songs too, the same lyrics or word repeated an unreasonable amount, which this album apparently loves. Nearly every song felt the need to repeat its name incessantly, did they think we would forget? I recognised She Wants To Move, registered somewhere in my brain, and it was probably the only song that gave me any semblance of pleasure. I found nothing novel, original or even interesting in this album. Absolutely incomprehensible how to current top review for this says it's "eclectic and original" and "pushes the envelope", this sounds like one of the most cookie-cutter early-2000s hip hop/"rock" albums I've ever heard. Most / Least Favourite Track(s): She Wants To Move, with Thrasher the only other song I didn't beg to finish / Jump Rating: 1.5/5 but I always round down here. Just truly exhausting.

Sometimes a bit cringe but otherwise great

I actually had a small N.E.R.D phase in college, but never spent any time with this album -- only In Search Of... and Seeing Sounds. 3 tracks in and I hate this. Jump is a special kind of terrible. I mean the instrumentals are OK, but the vocals are just obnoxious. Well for the first time in a while I was glad for this one to be done. Very little redeeming here for me. I'm going 1-2 range...

Yeah I have no idea how this middle-of-the-road nonsense rap-pop ended up on this list. Skip this one please.

Didn't connect with this album at all. Felt like I was waiting for the songs to hit a different gear to keep my interest, but everything felt flat and uninteresting. Especially disappointing after seeing Pharrell Williams was in this group

Genuinely don't know how this is on the list

Terrible background canned rock. Each song just a repeat of what came before. I find the vocals are high pitched and managed to become irritating as more modern iterations achieve a more energetic catchy effect which is almost entirely missing here. No chance I would listen to this or similar again. Its got the polish of a hospital. I dont think I can find any redeeming feature of this as the lyrics are crap too.

Didn't connect with this album at all. I don't mind the eclecticism in principle but in practice I didn't think the hodgepodge of different styles really worked. Similarly with satire or cultural observation, good if it resonates with you but I didn't find any of this did. Being kind, I could see how this could hold some cultural relevance to a certain demographic in the US but it didn't feel that way for me.

Terrible, unimaginative slop. Pharrell had to start somewhere…

;/ Not interesting for me, nothing on it feels original.

It would be difficult for me to be less interested in this album. It just bores me. 1 star or F+.

Der var nogen bangers til at starte med, men synes langt det meste var skippable

I hate N/E.R.D. and I really can't stand Pharrell, sorry

custom_rating:2

I respect Pharrell a lot as a producer, but have absolutely zero interest in listening to any of his music! Multiple times on this record where I audibly went "wow, this sucks"

The music seems interesting for a few minutes, but then gets boring and repetitive pretty soon. Lyrics are just awful.

eh

Pretty annoying kind of music. I forgot about this era where everyone thought rap-rock was cool and innovative. I like Pharrell a whole lot more as a producer than a vocalist (side note: if I could remove one song from history, it'd be Happy. Fuck Despicable Me). The background vocals on this (like JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!) make me really mad. Who is this music for??? Was tempted to give 2 stars bc the production is interesting sometimes and they could arguably get some points for experimenting. But ultimately, I wanted to skip every song after 30 seconds – and I pretty much did

I hated just about every second of this.

Meh

Die

Hendrix : Kravitz :: OutKast : NERD Incredibly repetitive songs that get boring 1 minute in. Smug eclecticism that dabbles in a lot of genres without going beyond the surface of their sound, so you get lots of boring fuzzy guitar riffs, generic jazziness, bland RnB horns, corny rap bravura, perky charmless britpop jangle, and annoying emo melodies. A good argument for keeping the producers behind the boards.

Really thought I was gonna like this, but it was hot trash.

am i crazy or did this suck. the track Maybe didn’t seem so bad, but that might’ve just been the stockholm syndrome at that point

2/5 kinda bad

This had aggressively mediocre side project energy.

The hell is this? Hip hop? Pop? New Jack Swing? Cross-over? Whatever it tried to be, it failed. This is, without hyberbole, one of the WORST albums I've been served on this 1001 list. Ive at least finished listening to all the 1 star albums - here I just found myself skipping every song. SH*T

Sorry what even was this!? I recognised THE one song but the rest of it was just highly irritating. Couldn't bear it. Particularly the weird song about a baby judging it's mother. Another weird paternalistic song singing about a trouble mother.. how many similar songs for men are there? Does my nut in

Absolutely not. So many weird, misogynistic lyrics here and generally just crap. Backseat Love is just a rape song right? Look at these lyrics: I was walking, down the street Saw this girl, she smell so sweet Hey, baby She start running, so I gave chase How they get them sapphires in yo face? Hey, baby So we start walking, and holding hands But she don't know, that daddy got plans I'm gon' get her in my car In the backseat and show her a rock star WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!

I'm not sure if it was my mood, but I thoroughly detested this album. It feels like low-grade pop rock, and yet another album that makes me question why it's on the list.

This didn't seem to age well. Even the singles seemed tired at this point.

1. uuorry - 0 2. fly - 0 3. jump - 0 4. love - 0 5. move - 0 6. breakout - 0 7. place - 0 8. drill - 0 9. trazher - 0 10. maybe - 0 11. dancez - 0 12. fire - 0 I GIVE THEM A ZERO RATING BUT NOT AN OPTION. FUCKKNG SUCK BALLS !!!!!!!!!!!

Oof, this one was a tough listen for me. I really didn't know what Pharrell's background was, to me he showed up in like 2013 singing on "Blurred Lines" (very bad), "Get Lucky" (ok), and his own "Happy" (also bad). Apparently he was part of a production duo called The Neptunes, and then him and the other Neptunes guy formed this rap-rock band called N.E.R.D (No-one Ever Really Dies). That's the history. I'll be honest, I was already little negatively polarized on Pharrell (though him making Maggie Rogers famous was cool I guess), and this didn't really help. The rap-rock thing can occasionally work for me, but here it just felt like barely rap combined with completely uninspired pop-rock beats. The lyrics were rough too, it feels like something an 18-year old might write, but he was 31 when this came out. There is the occasional catchy beat here and there, and his vocals are fine, but the good parts are few and far between on a fairly long album. One of the things that people give them credit for was learning the instruments so they could play this live (which I guess they didn't for their first album). I guess that's a little impressive, but maybe just stick to your thing next time. Favorite song: She Wants To Move Other: Breakout, Maybe 10/24/24

Rubbish

God awful singing. Unremarkable

I was looking forward to this as I had heard good things about N.E.R.D and there first album In Search Of ... This one was ok it jumps about a bit encompassing hip hop, pop, jazz & rock at various different places and honestly none of it is that great, so yeah that's about it nothing really more to say on it.

Wasn’t on apple or Spotify so 1 star from me

I like Pharrell, but this one wasn't good

Nahhhhhhh - no thanks

Absolutely no way this should be anywhere near this list. Laughably bad. Three hidden tracks? I'd have happily gone with twelve hidden tracks; hidden in a vault, encased in concrete and dropped into the Mariana Trench.

just kinda passed me by without anything of note jumping out - good or bad!

It was funky fun, made me wiggle my hips a bit but overall I felt no connection in my heart or mind, alas.

Tässä geneeristä alavirettä on oudoitettu koristelulla, kuten jännillä soinnuilla, sähköskeballa ja progehtavilla rytmeillä. Vaikea kuunneltava.

Volgens mij moeten we rap en rock lekker gescheiden houden. 4/10 Highlights - Dieptepunt Wonderful Place

Awful from the jump. This had no business being an ep, let alone 55 minutes. If you want to jam aimlessly with your buds be my guest but don’t subject me to it. God I hated this.

Mist!

Not my cup of tea. Didn't care for the language or topics. Seemed to be well done.

This shit sucks

No.

I made it to song 4 or 5, and I had to bring out the gong. Nope. Not for me. Sorry N.E.R.D fans.

Album Nr. 19 Nicht meins. :-(

Mixed bag

So nondescript I've forgotten it already.

eh 1

Truño habitual

No thanks

I particularly enjoyed the period of silence before the hidden track began.

Couldn’t listen on Apple Music - found it on Spotify but could only listen on shuffle. Didn’t bother with most of it. I think Pharrell really showed his true colours with Blurred Lines. Not cool P, not cool.

No thanks

There's a special kind of torture to watching things you love done exceptionally poorly. It's like accidentally grabbing the salt for your tea instead of the sugar. It's a bad experience all around.

As they say in the Netherlands "geen ruk an"

Extremely bland and boring.

Nerd just doesn’t do it for me. No matter how critically acclaimed it is. 1.5/5

Jesus Christ this looks like it's gonna be an abomination. Update: it is. It fucking SUX. And ugh, Pharrell Williams to boot. The shit stars really did align this morning lol. Recognised 1 song, wished I hadn't. Just the worst example of the early 2000s I can think of right now. 1/5.

One of the worst albums I’ve ever heard

Pretensão adolescente de qualquer um pode fazer rock. Isso sem ter nada de punk evolvido. Tentativas pasteurizadas de soar como RHCP ou Faith no More.