G I R L by Pharrell Williams

G I R L, Pharrell Williams' second studio album and his first since 2006's In My Mind, arrived on March 3, 2014 through his own I Am Other imprint and Columbia. By then he'd spent 2013 everywhere at once, guesting on Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and producing Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", and "Happy", from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, was already a runaway worldwide smash when it was drafted in as the lead single.

The record around it is a sleek, sunlit party, dance-pop grooves and neo-soul silk with a funk strut underneath, and the Neptunes man gliding over the top. The guest list is stacked: Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Daft Punk, JoJo and Alicia Keys all drop by. It went to number one in 12 countries, and at the 57th Grammy Awards it earned an Album of the Year nod and took home Best Urban Contemporary Album.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.