'G I R L'

Pharrell spends the first 25 seconds of his sophomore album with a classical string orchestra before he breaks in by announcing “different,” dropping an 808 beat and getting you to dance. It’s a nice metaphor for the album at large — Williams doesn’t need to try so hard to create a masterpiece, he just has to get us to move.

And he does so wonderfully.
Further on in “Marilyn Monroe,” a voice with British accent offered an invocation: “In honor of the groove, and all who surrender to it, we say thank you — and take it back.” Williams gets us to surrender to the groove effortlessly.

This feeling of effortlessness comes about because of Williams’s devotion to simplicity. He’s bringing back a minimalism that Stevie Wonder brought to contemporary pop music but infuses it with a modern soul and elements that show he has collaborated with artists like Britney Spears, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé.

Quite frankly, the highlight of the album is single “Happy” — a chart-topping, soul-clapping favorite. But we get other joys throughout the album in the
tribal-humming and flat-out goofing around vibe of “Lost Queen.”

“Brand New” features vocals by Justin Timberlake and “Know Who You Are” includes Alicia Keys, making both tracks pretty irresistible solely because these two timeless pop artists sound so goddamned soulful.

The 10-track album knows what it is and knows the people can’t dance forever. I actually appreciate the devotion to a “shorter” album — compared to most current pop albums — because it demonstrates Williams’s hyper-awareness of his time in the producing world and knowing what the people want.

True, the album leaves much to be desired in the lyrics. Pharrell doesn’t get this grade for his poetics — it’s for his infusion of soul, R&B, funk and disco into pop music that hasn’t been seen so successfully since Michael Jackson.

But as the album progresses and you spend more time with it, you begin to wonder if we like Williams for being a producer and collaborator or if he can only accomplish the genre blending in his own work.

Regardless, Pharrell is the artist we didn’t know we needed. But now that we know, we should never let him go.

Luckily it looks like he’ll be around for quite a while — both with his booming career and the fact that it appears he found the Fountain of Youth.