Have you listened to Nelly Furtado lately? If not, why not? Well, anyway, I finally got around to listening to some of the stuff off her new album Folklore. And it is better than I expected, and my expectations were already fairly high.
Her first album, Whoa, Nelly! showed some great potential, but did also demostrate some immaturity (in the words of one reviewer whose name I have long ago forgotten, it was "over produced", for example). It was interesting for its mix of many musical styles, including some that don't exactly fit in the usual pop mainstream these days, and frankly some of it went over my head. There is you jazz though, and I guess some Latin, and some other stuff I would only know was there because someone else told me. Granted, it was combined in the more or less hip-hop vernacular, which may turn off some people who probably would otherwise find it interesting (we won't mention the vulgarity...). Increasing its cool points was Furtado's international (especially immigrant) sensibilities and the profusion of non-English lyrics. She seems to view herself as an immigrant, even though she is not first generation. I do not see that as a bad thing, however. Oh, yes, and, of course, the last selling point for her album was the fact that, in the vernacular, "it rocked" (albeit in a distinctly hip-hop way, which was no loss for those of us bored by the offbeat). The frequently-played single "Turn off the Light!" best epitomized that tendency of the album.
The new album has more of the same, but with a little more refinement. I like its politics though. "Fresh off the Boat," celebrates immigrants (though in a way that could potentially be taken as offensive if you didn't know in advance how Furtado feels about the subject - though still I think she walks a fine line), with a nice hip-hoppy (I think I just made that up) musical intensity. Many may have heard the single "Powerless" on the radio; that song is alright. It has a confrontational message (bonus points!) and is sufficiently slick musically, if perhaps a little dull than we could hope for from Furtado, but such is life. "Forca" is good too, for the record. And, again, lots of international sensibility.
So, if you haven't, take a listen to Folklore. And keep an eye for more from Furtado (which may be a while, given the gap between her last two albums). Hopefully she won't sell out!
(Though, given that she signed with DreamWorks before her first album some may say that already happened, alas. At this point I should mention that I sympathize with those who want a complete boycot of the major labels to protect independent artists and labels, and in an effort to take back radio. I find boycotting the labels increasingly hard to do, though. I am afraid some music released on it is not too bad, if not always quite Beethoven. Buy used? Stick to Beethoven? I don't know. The best solution, of course, is to make your own music, and then we won't have to worry about. When everyone is a producer, there are no consumers to be taken advantage of.)
