Lights are flickering ominously, Catherine hears piano music and smells car exhaust, and her daughter reports seeing a woman in her bedroom. We in the audience have also seen the woman, because Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s film wants us to know that what’s happening is real. There is definitely a ghost hovering in the house’s atmosphere, either menacing or simply restless. Little of what Things Heard & Seen does with this haunting is inventive, though it is evocative. Based on Elizabeth Brundage’s 2016 novel All Things Cease to Appear, the film is steeped in history and mysticism. George is an art history professor whose colleague, Floyd ( F. Murray Abraham), runs seances with a group of locals devoted to the beliefs of Emanuel Swedenborg, a theologian who wrote about heaven and hell and angels and the passage between life and death. ![]() For further texture, there is also the history of George and Catherine’s house, discovered, in the old-fashioned way, through photographs, books, and microfiche. (The film takes place in 19.)įor the bulk of the film, Things Heard & Seen is a stylish, twisty mystery, tinged with sex and horror and some sly satire of academia. Its tasteful B-movie trappings don’t quite earn the grandness of the film’s finale, though. When Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams are behind the boards, hit singles are expected, and hit singles are usually granted. For The Neptunes Present.Clones, the tables are somewhat turned the producers aren't in need of any more hits, but they do the enlisting here, and they snare an all-star cast of featured players who are willing to join up and/or return the favor, all the while reaping the cachet that comes with being in such venerated company. If anything, Clones puts an end to any thought that the duo randomly selects a track from their beat bank when collaborating, since it ably demonstrates how their skills can adapt to any conceivable personality. Williams steps out with some help from Jay-Z on "Frontin'," one of the biggest Neptunes-related singles yet the light, simple arrangement is ideally suited to Williams' lighthearted falsetto. (It also must be said that no one else could make the line "And I was gon' tear your ass up" seem so charming.) The spare cattle-prod funk of "Light Your Ass on Fire" pings and jolts with sharp zaps, accompanying Busta Rhymes' more sexually aggressive and explicit come-ons. (It also must be said that no one but Williams could make a chorus like "Pop sh*t, n*gg*, what's up?" so effective.) "Popular Thug," originally a track on Kelis' import-only Wanderland, gets a deserved new look, with Pusha T's role bumped in favor of Nas, who proceeds to take the track over and knock Kelis into the supporting role.Īmidst whirling sirens, Dirt McGirt's turn, "Pop Shit," boasts a comical Looney Tunes-worthy arrangement. At 18 tracks, there's a little too much to digest, and not everything is top rate - but knocking the disc for the fact that a few cuts aren't Top Ten material would only further illustrate how spoiled listeners have become, and how remarkable the Neps' run has been. Besides, you can whittle this disc down to your favorite dozen and have one of the year's best albums. Doing this would hopefully eradicate the middle patch of innocuous rock - Spymob's "Half-Steering," the High Speed Scene's "F**k n' Spend" - while retaining the aforementioned highlights, along with saving space for Vanessa Marquez' "Good Girl," which has to be the best ripoff of late-'80s Jam & Lewis-style production. ![]() Or you could just take the whole disc as is, as a strong if patchy reminder of the Neptunes' pop prowess.Whether measured by sales, radio airplay, critical reception, awards, influence, or endurance, the Neptunes are one of the all-time most successful production teams. ![]() Heirs to pioneers of bare-knuckled rap and pop-flavored electronic R&B, from Larry Smith and Rick Rubin to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and peers of fellow Virginians Timbaland and Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo have set themselves apart with an ever-evolving sound that has appealed to the streets, the charts, and multiple generations of listeners. Candy-coated, animatedly funky, and often powered by beats that can be replicated with fists pounding a cafeteria table, their work is instantly identifiable, and further distinguished by Williams' voice, a frequent secondary element that has often blurred the distinction between duettist and hype man with bumptious rhymes and falsetto hooks. Having tasted the Top Ten for the first time with Mase's "Lookin' at Me" (1998), the duo repeatedly hit the upper tier of the Hot 100 in the ensuing years with Nelly's "Hot in Herre" (2002), Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" (2003), Kelis' "Milkshake" (2003), and Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" (2004) only scratching the surface of their early output.
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