Furtado Made Over

Nelly Furtado’s latest CD, Loose is a schizophrenic jewel. It’s all over the place with no single defining sound but Furtado has the confidence and talent to pull off an entertaining hip-hop, dance, reggaeton and ballad-driven CD. Her sophomore album “Folklore” faded into obscurity, but Loose makes Furtado relevant, saving her from one-hit wonderness, based on her hugely successful 2000 single “I’m Like a Bird.”Various producers had a part in Loose, but Timbaland primarily produced the CD. He and Furtado have chemistry in front of and behind the microphone. He also provides the vocals on the infectious “Promiscuous,” infusing the hip-hop track with a slick groove.
ame

The Jamaican and Latin-influenced “No Hay Igual,” featuring Puerto Rican singer René Pérez, is fiery. It’s a dance song that feels street. No matter that’s it’s primarily in Spanish, it’s the kind of song that makes one want to sing along.

ame The beginning of the surprisingly powerful “Afraid” sounds like Euro-pop meets hip-hop as Furtado sings the hypnotic hook, “You’re so afraid of what people might say / But that’s okay cuz you’re only human.” It ends with the same verse sung a capella with a group of vocals.

ame The candid “In God’s Hands” finds Furtado sounding nothing like her “Promiscuous” alter ego. Here, she conjurs the soulful voice behind her debut, “Whoa Nelly.” She mourns a relationship that’s over but with a sense of hope rather than anger at the past. She begins with “We gave a lot but it wasn’t enough / We got so tired that we just gave up,” but ends with “Oh I want it back / Oh just what we had.”

With so many music styles represented on Loose, it would seem like the versatile Furtado has bitten off more than she can chew. Not true. She and Timbaland have created a likeable CD with something for everyone.