Nelly Furtado Gets Loose & It's Timbalandalicious!
Written: Aug 19 '06 (Updated Aug 19 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: It's really, really good
Cons: Meh.
The Bottom Line: It may not be the Nelly Furtado of album's past, but it's still grat. Final Rating: 4.5 STARS.
|
|
|
| cletta1201's Full Review: Loose by Nelly Furtado |
Before Nelly Furtado’s latest album Loose was even available in stores, folks were already screaming the big “S” word – sellout. It’s slightly boggling to think that a change in musical style makes you a sellout, especially as it relates to Furtado since neither of her first two discs (Whoa, Nelly!, Folkore) really sound all that much alike. Besides that, Folklore’s less than impressive album sales stateside (It was certified Gold here, compared to Whoa, Nelly!’s double-platinum success), perhaps signaled a need for change, or at least openened up an opportunity to try something entirely different.
More than reacting to her move to abandon the intimacy and simplicity of Folklore , fans are upset about Furtado pairing up with Timbaland who’s most overt success has mostly been achieved within Hip-Hop (with the glaring exception being the late Aaliyah). He helms much of Loose and looking from the outside in, fans were probably right to be nervous. Nelly Furtado isn’t a rapper and Timbaland has often had a penchant for making his beats more of focal point than actual artist vocals. However, a good listen to Loose proves that Furtado can definitely hold her own and any worries about Timbaland are wholly unfounded.
What really solidifies Loose as a great album is its carefree, good energy. Recorded primarily in Miami, Loose is everything Folklore wasn’t (although there are a sprinkling of tracks that call that album’s more mellow, serious mood to mind) and a fresher and sexier spin on what Whoa, Nelly was in 2000. When Loose gets going, the pace is practically frenetic.
Two of Loose’s sparkly, shining stars are the frenzied “Glow” and the reggaton-influenced “No Hay Igual”. Despite reggaton having been beaten to death over the last year, Furtado vamps all over “No Hay Igual” singing ” El hambre que tengo tienes que matar/Mi copa vacia tienes que llenar/… Quiero lo que quiero y lo quiero ahora” which translates to ”You have to kill this hunger I have/You have to fill my empty cup/…I want what I want and I want it right now”. Where she vamps on the former, Furtado writhes and shimmies over the electric bass of “Glow”.
There is also the very lovely “Say It Right” which seems to be a perfect blend of Furtado’s sensibility as a singer/songwriter (”From my hands I could give you something that I made/From my mouth I could sing you another brick that I laid /From my body I could show you a place God knows /You should know the space is holy/ Do you really want to go?”) and Timbland’s genius as a producer. There is just the right amount of effects and a very clever layering of both his and her vocals that works perfectly against his signature thumping drum line and yet, the song still manages to feel quite feminine and pretty all the same. “Do It” sounds like Love Angel Music Baby-era Gwen Stefani, but its 80-synth sound works as Furtado falsetto’s all over the place.
You would pretty much had to have been living under a rock to not be able to recognize Looses’ lead singles – the smart, electro pop “Promiscuous Girl” and the frisky, darker “Maneater”. Promiscuous could have just as easily have been a Black Eyed Peas song, replacing Nelly Furtado with Fergie and Timbaland with Will.I.Am (Or the other two members of the group who do whatever it is that they do), but it works for what it is – which is a sassy play between the two collaborators. “Maneater” owns it’s sexuality in a big way. It is part grit and all confidence and would be at home in a club as well as being played by some marching band in Idaho at a Friday night football game. And it is exactly that kind of flexible approachability is what makes this album work on so many levels.
Less you think that Loose is just a big old ball of kinetic silliness; there are several rather still moments on the album. There is the Juanes featured “Te Busque”, which is all guitar-tinged and stripped down, as well as the Chris Martin co-penned “All Good Things (Come To An End)” (unfortunately Martin’s record company didn’t allow the version which features his vocals to appear on the album, but it’s worth hunting for). There’s also the dour “In God’s Hands” with a quiet piano background, it’s a quiet reflection of love lost that really highlights Furtado’s unique tone.
Although Furtado is a capable songwriter (listen to Folklore), most of what’s encapsulated on Loose is quite banal. The only reason that Furtado gets an okay is because at the root, Loose doesn’t feel as if it was intentioned to be a deep, philosophical record, but rather an attempt to not be musically pigeonholed and to create a record that feels fun, lighthearted and easy. It listens like a love letter to a summer and will find its home on dancefloors everywhere.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
cletta1201
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Cletta The Great
Location: Northern Virginia
Reviews written: 309
Trusted by: 262 members
About Me:
Unlike Madtheory, you can call mine a comeback.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.