Review
Genre and Mood
Paul Oakenfold steps away from trance on Sex ‘N’ Money, featuring Pharrell Williams. Wikipedia files it under breakbeat and hip house: a pulsing electronic beat, a cool, half-sung vocal and an atmosphere of indulgence that the track both enjoys and questions.
Song Summary
The track looks at a glamorous, superficial world where the desire for wealth and pleasure blur together. Its rhythm is built for the dance floor and its hook is simple and repeated, but the song, and especially its video, leave room for the thought that what you desire might be what destroys you.
Lyrics Breakdown
Intro: Setting the Stage
The song opens with a pulsating beat that immediately draws the listener in, before Pharrell’s smooth vocal sets a provocative tone.
Verse 1: The Allure of Fame
The first verse turns to the allure of fame and fortune, the desires and temptations of life in the spotlight.
Chorus: The Dance of Indulgence
In the chorus the energy peaks around the title phrase, an infectious hook made for dancing.
Verse 2: Reflecting on Excess
The second verse looks again at a life of indulgence, Pharrell’s delivery staying cool and hypnotic, poised between celebration and caution.
Bridge: A Moment of Contemplation
The bridge pauses the vocal while the beat keeps pulsing, building tension before the final chorus.
Final Chorus: Embracing the Duality
The final chorus returns with renewed intensity and the track ends on a powerful finish, leaving its duality unresolved.
Concepts in Focus
Sex ‘N’ Money is a showcase for the <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist. Oakenfold, one of the best-known trance DJs, produced the album with Ian Green and invited guests from outside dance music, including Brittany Murphy, Grandmaster Flash and Ryan Tedder; Pharrell Williams co-wrote this track and sings it. The feature changes the record’s genre and audience at once: a hip-hop and R&B voice pulls the track toward hip house and toward American radio.
The beat is closer to breakbeat than to the steady four-on-the-floor of trance. Syncopated, skipping drums give the track a swagger that suits Pharrell’s laid-back phrasing. Compare the very different, disco-based groove he rides on Daft Punk – Get Lucky (Radio Edit).
As a single, released on 27 November 2006, the song came in several versions, a typical remix package of its time: a radio edit, a club mix, Benny Benassi’s radio edit, Pump-Kin club mix and dub, and mixes by Kenneth Thomas and Nat Monday. Each serves a different floor, from radio to peak-time electro house.
The animated music video, directed by Christopher Heary, retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche at “Club Perfecto”: Cupid arrives by limousine, fights Psyche on its roof as it drives through an endless club, fires golden coins from a machine gun while she fires lipstick that turns into fanged lips, and the story ends in front of a wall reading “What we desire destroys us”. It is the clearest statement of the song’s moral.
Artistic Context
The track comes from A Lively Mind, Oakenfold’s second studio album, released on 5 June 2006 under the name Oakenfold on his own label Perfecto, and the follow-up to Bunkka (2002). Critics were unkind, with a Metacritic score of 40, but the album was nominated for the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Sex ‘N’ Money followed Faster Kill Pussycat as its second single and reached number 10 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart in the United States.
