After announcing their first live shows for three years earlier this summer, it looks like N.E.R.D may be about to return with their fifth album, and their first since 2010.
The trio, led by hat-lover-extraordinaire Pharrell Williams, have been dormant for some time, whilst their leader went off to feel like a room without a roof, but posters and adverts seen a Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flogg Naw festival over the weekend strongly suggest that their return is imminent.
NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES @NeRdArMy pic.twitter.com/5ic6b5Dy8G
— SHADEZ THE MISFIT (@shadeztm) October 29, 2017
N.E.R.D. ads everywhere pic.twitter.com/N7tzt0TQa5
— pharrell's junebug (@angelAmyV) October 29, 2017
Posters displaying the words ‘No-one Ever Really Dies’ have begun to surface, both at Tyler’s festival, and on the bands various social media pages, clearly playing on the band’s acronym name.
Pharrell himself has been talking about a new N.E.R.D album since as far back as 2015, and further confirmed the group’s plans at ComplexCon in November 2016, during a live recording of his Beats 1 show OTHERtone. After opening a Q&A session with his audience, Williams was quizzed about whether there would be another N.E.R.D album or not.
“The answer is yes” Pharrell responded, to excited applause from his crowd. Pharrell went on to compare N.E.R.D’s creative process to making wine, teasing his audience with the suggestion that the new album would drop “when it’s time.”
Williams also sat down for an interview with the BBC in February, and spoke on the album’s progress, stating that the production was still underway, but that “It’s feeling really good, really special.”
