Nelly Furtado - Loose Album Review

Nelly Furtado
Loose
Album Review

It's all about making you dance on Nelly Furtado's new album 'Loose'. It's about how her voice, which always came across as broody and folksy though impressive on her last 2 albums, is freed from the bounds defined by the messages she bore on her earlier songs. And when you've enlisted Timbaland, as she's done, then you're in for bass laden original (sometimes groundbreaking) beats. Timbaland - originally known as DJ Timmy Tim and who's worked with Missy Elliot, SWV, Aaliyah and Justin Timberlake - delivers. The ballads and slower songs show off Nelly Furtado's vocal ability but the thumps and chops seem to overshadow her voice at some points on 'Loose'.

Prior indication of Nelly's ability to work a Timbaland beat came on her cameo on Ms Jade's 'Ching Ching' and, very unlike her hits 'I'm like a bird' and 'Turn Off the Lights' off her gold and multiplatinum selling albums 'Whoa Nelly' and 'Folklore', she's showing a little more attitude on a good number of songs off 'Loose'. She still shows her more sensitive but less folksy side on songs like the Latino pop 'Tu Busque' featuring Juanes (returning a Nelly favour on their duet 'Fotografia' off his album 'Fijate Bien'), 'In Gods Hands' (co-written and produced by Rick Nowels) and the Chris Martin (Coldplay) pan pipe driven mellowness of 'All Good Things'.

'Showtime', which is light on the thumps and chops but high on passion and is my current favourite, mellows out an album that starts off on a party note with the catchy chorused 'Afraid'. The starting pace is maintained by the 80's pop affected and current UK number one single 'Maneater' (anybody thinking Gwen Stefani's 'Hollerback Girl' from last summer?) and one of my favourites on the album 'Promiscuous' sees some cheeky vocal banter between Nelly Furtado and Timbaland. The 80's influence, which seems to be Timbaland's current music crate digging era, are further evident on 'Glow' and 'Do it' and the public's current love with all things reggaeton breeds the synthesiser hooks on 'No Hay Igual'. 'Loose' also sees some work by Pharrell Williams and Scott Storch. The UK release also has 2 bonus tracks 'Let my Hair Down' with Nelly speaking over heavy drums and water drop effects and Latin/Portuguese guitar and piano effected 'Somebody to Love'.

Nelly Furtado has chosen to have a party this summer and she's, with the help of Timbaland, decided to invite a lot more people than she invited on her last 2 albums; from the chart sales (Number 1 on the singles chart and number 5 on the album chart) a lot of us seem to like the music enough to get 'Loose' with Nelly

Seyi
qbs4u.co.uk