(HUGE) Article: "In defence of Nelly Furtado?s hot-mama makeover"..

[hootiehoo]

MUSIC
Bustin’ Loose
In defence of Nelly Furtado’s hot-mama makeover
By Jason Anderson
world based on a run of hits that established Furtado as a lithe, limber-voiced pop singer whose PG appeal was bolstered by some genuine R&B cred. She established the latter on a remix of Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On, her first encounter with Timbaland.

When she re-emerged in 2003 with the album Folklore, Furtado was transformed from a sprightly ingenue to a worldly, slightly sombre single mom. She attributed the album’s mellow mood to the fact she was pregnant with daughter Nevis during the recording; talk of the changes wrought by motherhood dominated interviews at the time of Folklore’s release. With prestigious guest appearances by the Kronos Quartet and Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso, the music was richly textured, worthy and many miles removed from the radio-friendly pop of I’m Like a Bird. The new songs furthered earlier lyrical themes about self-determination, but beyond the stirring hit Powerless (Say What You Want), the music had become overly safe and more than a little dull.

Furtado says that she knew something was up when she learned that the country that most embraced Folklore was not the U.S. or Canada, but Germany. “Why do Germans love this album?” she asks with a laugh in a recent interview. “I think I figured it out: It’s so cerebral. It’s great in its own way, but that’s a different side.”

Furtado says she always knew her third album had to express her love of R&B and hip hop; she’d settled on the title five years ago. But Furtado — who turns 28 in December — still had trouble convincing herself to go through with it. “My problem with hip hop was that, even though I’d do collaborations with other people on singles, I thought it can’t possibly be good enough for a whole album for me. Then I realized, ‘Why am I being so pretentious?’”

...Loose, she says, “is me breaking free from those ideas and jumping in the deep end of the pool – ‘Ahh, screw it, this is fun!’ When I play certain songs, I get so into it, it’s like I’m listening to my favourite song when I was 16.”

Finding the collaborator who would get her to this place wasn’t easy — working without Track and Field for the first time, Furtado auditioned producer-remixer Nellee Hooper (Bj?rk, Madonna), Scott Storch (Beyonc?, Jadakiss) and the Neptunes (Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake) before ending up at the Miami studio of Timbaland. Famed for minimalist, bass-heavy grooves that incorporate everything from ‘80s-style synths to East Indian percussion, Virginia native Tim Mosley is responsible for hip hop and R&B hits by Missy Elliott, the late Aaliyah and many others. Yet one of the reasons he and Furtado hit it off is because they were both excited not about what was happening in hip hop, but in rock.

“Rock music is rhythmic again,” says Furtado, who professes much love for Bloc Party and Death From Above 1979. “It got so churning and boring. I think hip hop’s really influenced the new rock sound.” Tough, terse rhythms dominate Loose; in fact, Maneater could’ve been pounded out on a trashcan. On Afraid and Glow, doomy synthesizer chords and Furtado’s multi-tracked vocals are set against urgent beats with highly compelling results. The most frenetic track on the album is No Hay Igual, a wild, skittering take on the Latin hip-hop style known as reggaeton.

Furtado also had the good luck to be in the middle of the mutual appreciation society that exists between Timbaland and Coldplay’s Chris Martin, each of whom has publicly praised the other’s genius. After seeing Martin at the MTV Video Music Awards in Miami last August, Furtado invited him to Timbaland’s studio the next night. The product of their summit is All Good Things Come to an End, a hazy piece of beat-laden psychedelic pop.

The non-Timbaland tracks on Loose — the stately ballad In God‘s Hands and Te Busque, a duet with Colombian star Juanes — suggest Furtado isn’t ready to abandon her other musical interests. But on the whole, the music here is not just loose but refreshingly raw, especially coming from an artist whose past recordings often seemed meticulous to the point of being sterile. Animated by Timbaland’s rhythms, Furtado responds with joyful vocal performances.

“The things that feel the best and the most natural, we run away from,” says Furtado. “And the things that seem like good ideas in our brains or on paper, we stick with because they seem safe.” For the time being, what’s safe has lost out to what’s fun, flirty and bold. The victory is ours to enjoy.

Jason Anderson is a Toronto writer.

[Arabesque]

WOW thanks for that havent read it yet but Ill grab a snack and come back

[whoa_johnny!]

thats a great article. Listening to Loose you can just tell she had an awesome time creating it and venturing into a new direction. Ahhhhh Nelly...... by the way do u think we'll ever get to hear any of the tracks (if any) she recorded with Nellee H, Scott Storch and especially the Neptunes?? gatdamn i wanna hear em'!

[QuantumP7]

Best review yet.

[panellyfan22]

i like that alot.

thanx!

[MissingOrigin]

I wouldnt say HOT MOMMA but Sexy Princess.
HOT MOMMA would of been her getting Breast Implants but I am not going there again.

[_mOnIKa]

Thanks!!

Its Nice ...

[goingsolo]

would've been interesting to see if the rock influence was more apparent on 'loose'

[billerr]

For one thing, I'd like the rest of the 40 songs she recorded for Loose to be released. I bet they have the same rocky, new feeling she's dived into...