On February 6, 2017, during an interview with BBC Radio 1, Pharrell stated that "it's feeling really good, really special" about the group's return.[7]
In October 2017, the album was teased after posters were popping up on the side of streets, and by concertgoers at the 2017 Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival.[8][9]
The album was debuted with a live listening party during the first day at ComplexCon, thus revealing the tracklist.[10] Pharrell revealed the album's cover art and release date via Instagram and Twitter on November 22, 2017.[11][12]
Artwork
The album's artwork depicts a tongue with the album's title placed on top and aluminum foil on the teeth to substitute grills.[13][14]
No One Ever Really Dies received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 74, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15]
Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, in a 3.5 out of 4 star review, praised the album saying "No One Ever Really Dies” (Columbia), the band's first album in seven years, is a typically diverse, trippy ride from the group."[24]
In a four out of five star review for AllMusic, critic Andy Kellman claimed that "Tied together with recurring declarations of "mad ethnic right now," sampled from Retch's 2016 viral clip, the album is all raucous resistance to issues ranging from anti-immigration to police brutality to transgender rights. When Williams barks "You fuckin' with survivors!" like an activist Rockwell, he perfectly summarizes the indignant optimism that dominates the best N.E.R.D album since the original version of In Search of....."[16] With an 8/10 rating, A Harmony of Exclaim! declared "We're approaching 2018, but N.E.R.D. are centuries ahead of the rest of us. No_One Ever Really Dies is the group's most futuristic and experimental effort to date; it's gutsy and more than a little weird, but there's a slick tidiness underpinning the chaos from start to finish."[18]
Giving a 4.1 out of 5 grade, Kyle Eustice of HipHopDX opined "True to form, the 11-track effort is more like a collection of fiery mini-symphonies that effortlessly swing from genre to genre. Every track has multiple intricate parts that make each one feel like its own wild musical journey. Much like the trio’s 2002 debut In Search Of…, it’s impossible to classify the record as merely “Hip Hop” when it's a cornucopia of layered, eclectic sounds, including pop, R&B, trap, rock, fast-paced electronica, reggae and calypso."[20]Consequence of Sound's Dan Weiss gave a B saying "With NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES, the trio have delivered the party-at-the-end-of-the-world record that only their Rolodex could truly dream to life."[17]Kitty Empire of The Observer, in a 4 out of 5 star review, found
"This is a brash, busy party record with its eyes wide open, in which the NERD brand is thoroughly refreshed."[25]
Track listing
Credits adapted from Tidal.[26] All tracks are produced by Pharrell Williams, except where noted.
