He Likes It! He Actually Likes It! Nelly Furtado's Loose
Written: Jun 22 '06 (Updated Jul 03 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nelly and Timbaland make for natural collaborators.
Cons: They need to get over how natural their collaboration is.
The Bottom Line: In which the author can't believe that he actually bought another Nelly Furtado, much less that he even likes it. A lot.
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| plorentz's Full Review: Loose by Nelly Furtado |
Lord knows I've tried - how I've tried - to like Nelly Furtado. Even to love her in that distinctly worshipful-but-not-quite-sexual way that gay men tend to love their girly pop singers. In theory, this diminutive, highly caffeinated, Portuguese-Canadian nymph-person, with her quirky presence, her chirpy voice, and high fructose melodies ahould be a pop dream; and the way she cherishes and celebrates every single little identifying hyphenation - be it of musical genre or personal heritage - makes her Outsider Idol material.
But beyond her sweet debut single "I'm Like a Bird" and the good intentions of her made-for-an-NPR-feature-story sophomore album Folklore, Nelly has always either bored or irritated me. Any reasonable person who feels this way about any given artist would normally have no problem passing up a new release by said artist; and yet, as probable diagnostic proof of my own problem, I snatched up her latest - a collaboration with cutting-edge (ten years ago) hip-hop producer Timbaland - the suggestively titled (with suggestive photography to match) Loose without a second thought.
The good news: Loose has already gotten more airplay on my stereo than both of her previous albums put together. It's a surprisingly (given Furtado's track record) listenable album. The bad news: it's a surprisingly generic one too. Which isn't to say it's without its annoying moments. Four tracks in, Furtado's voice is already reminding me of just how shrill it can be - like an over-excited 7-year-old trying to talk sexy with a clothes-pin clipped to her nose. And a latter ballad called "In God's Hands" is just as stale as it sounds.
But by matching her often out-of-control exoticism as a singer-songwriter with the out-of-a-can exoticism of Timbaland's beats, the two prove ideal collaborators. Nelly's more grating tendencies are subdued and Timbaland's beats (which are always excellent, but often predictable) sound new in context. Thus we have songs like the opening "Afraid", charged with understated ebullience that had me singing along, and my 6-year-old giggling in the back seat. Indeed, when a rough-around-the-edges chorus of teens closes the song with a few rounds about its giddy, self-affirming hook, they erupt into genuine laughter at the end. Likewise, the minimalism and discipline of songs like "Showtime", "Do It", and especially "Say It Right" (which reminds me a little of Laura Branigan's "Self Control") make them prime candidates for late summer on-the-beach heavy rotation (and not just the radio variety).
Of course, it just wouldn't be a Nelly Furtado album if it didn't eventually get really, really obnoxious at some point. But again, the surprise here is that the most obnoxious track here, "No Hay Igual", which combines the best aspects of Missy Elliot's "Get Ur Freak On" and M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gun" - Middle Eastern beats, austere vintage synthesizers, and dancehall rapping - into one curiously infectious whole, is also one of the album's most effective and memorable moments.
Less obnoxious (most of the time), but also less effective, are the little snips of studio dialogue that fill the spaces between each of the songs. At first, they give the album a nifty fly-on-the-wall intimacy about Tim and Nelly's collaborative relationship; but the motif culminates in a pointless (and faintly smug) extended bout of mutual sycophancy (which tarnishes our impressions of both artists) leading into the otherwise gorgeous final tracks "Wait for You" and "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (whose ethereal chorus haunted my head all day yesterday, thereby making an otherwise soul-sucking software seminar tolerable - and even mystifying).
So here it is. A Nelly Furtado album that I like, that I maybe even could love in that distinctly worhipful-though-not-quite-sexual way gay men tend to fall in love records by their girly pop idols. And it may simply be that it's the least Nelly (and thereby the most generic pop) of her three records. That was unexpected.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Loose" by Nelly Furtado
Mosley / Geffen Records
Released 6/20/06
Produced by Timbaland and Danja w/Nisan Stewart, Lester Mendez, Rick Nowels, and Nelly Furtado
54 min.
SONGS: Afraid - Maneater - Promiscuous - Glow - Showtime - No Hay Igual - Te Busque - Say It Right - Do It - In God's Hands - Wait for You - All Good Things (Come to an End)
Recommended:
Yes
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plorentz
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Member: Paul Lorentz
Location: The Land of Limburger and Leinenkugel's
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