We're Up All Night to Get Lucky: Pharrell Suddenly Announces New Album, "G I R L" (Columbia)

Pharrell arguably had one of the most successful years of his career last year with the combined mega-success of "Get Lucky," "Blurred Lines," and countless other chart-topping hits. Late Tuesday night, news broke that Pharrell's long-rumored second solo album, now titled G I R L will see a March 3-4th release. Pharrell himself described the album as "the difference between [age] 30 and 40" during a career-spanning Complex interview and in stark contrast with both In My Mind (2006) and N*E*R*D, G I R L will supposedly feature "no rapping" whatsoever. While I've always thought Pharrell was a pretty impressive rapper-producer, he's a damn awesome singer and hook-man, as well. "Happy," the first single of the album's 10 currently untitled tracks, is a prime example of Skateboard P's singing chops; it was originally composed for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and almost functions as a modern day all-age "pursuit of happiness" anthem.

G I R L's striking album artwork was included along with an iTunes-initiated pre-order, which features Pharrell and three beautiful models outfitted in robes and vintage sunglasses seductively veering into the camera lens. I've also included a brief G I R L teaser-clip that's accented by about 30 seconds of mysterious-sounding album audio. "The reason why I named it G I R L in capital letters [with two spaces] is because when you look at it, it looks a little weird. And the reason why it does is because society is a little unbalanced. And I just thought like, if I'm gonna make an album, I need to make an album that says everything that I've ever wanted to say," Pharrell revealed to Zane Lowe backstage at the as-yet-unaired Brit Awards. "We need them. Every living breathing human being on this planet regardless to your sexual orientation benefits from two things from a woman: the agreement to enter the act and the agreement to have you. So, they have the power. Every human being has come through those silver-lined doors." It's unclear as to whether or not Pharrell's recent Amazing Spider-Man score super-collaborators Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), and Mike Einziger (Incubus) will appear anywhere within G I R L.