Pharrell featuring Kanye West - Number One (Virgin)
UK release date: 21 August 2006
Pharrell Williams is sweet and smooth, in voice and in looks, as well as being one of the most talented and distinctive knob-twiddlers around. He'd be quite easy to hate. And then you listen to Number One, the third single from the very successful In My Mind, and you wonder if the energy is finally starting to run out.
It sounds like an album track Justin Timberlake might just about record, in which Pharrell compares his "baby girl" to a number one record to prove to her how much he values her. Is there lots of fiddly production? Yes. And syncopated rhythms? Yes. Does a well-regarded rapper guest star? Yes, you get Kanye West, but somehow it feels like it wouldn't make a difference if he wasn't there.
It ticks all the boxes, it's even catchy after half a dozen plays, but somehow Number One doesn't gel. It feels like by the numbers hitmaking, not a patch some of the pared-down material like Can I Have It Like That and Drop It Like It's Hot he's been producing recently.
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