Posted September 30, 201014 yr I had meant to do this earlier, rather than on the last day of the task...OOPS. Nelly Furtado - Folklore Poor old Nelly. I remember when the reviews and promo for Loose came out, and they all pretty much dismissed this as a rubbish FLOP album. FLOP it may be, rubbish it wasn't. There are a few car crashes (hello SATURDAYS), but this is to be expected of an artist as restless as Nelly, who has never been content to settle on the one style. And this album really DOES contain some absolute GOLD; it's much better than my mediocre average suggests. It's simply an album of extremes; when Nelly hits the top, she's easily one of the most alluring and exciting singers around. When she has a wobble, it's utterly PAINFUL. Nelly basically matured on this album; the songwriting is a LOT more solid, assured and coherent. There's less of the try-hard throwing out senselessly "deep" statements in order to impress the intelligentsia. There's also less of the vocal twitching (the WTF moment on Fresh Off The Boat aside); Nelly's a lot more confident in her own vocal performance, no longer needing the quirks and rapping to make up for any perceived weaknesses in her singing. The production's abeen beefed up hugely - everything is considerably more fleshed out in comparison to the unpolished Whoa Nelly, with random and exotic instrumentation a-plenty. Sadly this was to backfire; in 2003 Mumford And Sons had not yet gotten around to putting the banjo back into fashion. The musical climate of 2003 was REALLY not all that accommodating to (shock horror) FOLK music, and the album was a relative failure (I don't think it even broke the UK top 10). :( What people really wanted you see, was hip-hop beats, sluts and guest rappers...what was Nelly to do...hmm. 10: One Trick Pony Nelly makes her mission statement here; Nelly's here to stay and she ain't no flash in the pan. Musically, this is Hey Man Part II. Which is fine, because Hey Man had a good base, it just needed building up. Luckily, that's exactly what Nelly's done here - a beefy beat, swirling strings, a lively chorus, lots of extra little bits of instrumentation; a banjo here, a mandolin there. The overall effect is WONDERFUL. 10: Powerless (Say What You Want) I know Nelly's trying to make a political point here, but frankly who cares when the music is THIS downright joyous? Thoroughly uplifting and rousing. 08: Explode Dramatic and striking. Nelly laments and reminisces over teenage excess, and everyday teenage activities such as smoking, gossiping and getting raped in the alley behind McDonalds. This is the kind of feel-good record that Des'ree was putting out ten years previously. 09: Try A decent pulls-at-the-heartstrings ballad. I'm in the minority in that I don't think this is the best single from this era, but it is damn good. The strength here is Nelly's vocals; she does vulnerable exceedingly well. 03: Fresh Off The Boat This ode to illegal immigrants is the closest to her past Whoa...Nelly sound. Sadly I simply cannot rate this highly, because Nelly actually does a Crazy Frog imitation during the middle eight. W.T.F. :mellow: 06: Forca Uplifting and vibrant world music - but also utterly cheesy. I think it's probably the football association which spoils it slightly for me. It officially renders this a 'novelty' song. 07.5: The Grass Is Green On the face of it, one of the blandest numbers on this record. But it's not long before you get infected with the chilled mellowness of it all - this is just SOOTHING . The closest Nelly is going to get to Magic FM. 10: Picture Perfect OMG this is perfection. Chilled and bluesy verses, and then soft rock chorus to DIE FOR. I can't put my finger on just what it is about this song that's so fantastic, it just sounds MAJESTIC. 01: Saturdays I suppose it's unfair to criticise this one too much, given it's little more than an interlude. But it's a bloody IRRITATING interlude. Nelly reels off a really exceedingly dull Saturday routine, which you know is far removed from her ACTUAL day. There's also an excitable bloke repeating Nelly's words, wailing "fruit and cakes" and "bakerryyyyy" in a high-pitched barbershop style. It's nowhere near as amusing as Nelly appears to believe it to be. 07: Build You Up This is a pretty catchy one; if a little depressing. Nelly warns her pal that the entire world is out to get them and knock them down, and everything's good for nothing. The production is fairly minimal until right at the end when a punchy beat kicks in, although the message doesn't get any warmer though. 02: Island Of Wonder Nelly goes ethnic again. I find the backing track just to annoying to deal with; basically an overload of record scratching. The chorus is also far too monotone for my liking, the bloke has a really whiny voice, and I have NO idea what that gibbering noise at the end is all about. FAR FROM WONDEROUS. 10: Childhood Dreams A MASTERPIECE. It starts off all ominous, with church organs and bells making you wonder whether you've just wondered into the end of a Final Fantasy game. Then a gentle strumming melody comes in, and Nelly sings sweetly out of time over it. It's all very ominous sounding, but also very tender and vulnerable. It then begins to slowly and slowly build up, Nelly becomes a little more shrill, more and more musical layers are added, the beat FINALLY kicks in, the organs make themselves known, and then we hit possibly the BEST climax to a song EVER. Nelly chants and wails, the beat becomes thunderous, and the church organs blast out at FULL. It's GLORIOUS and almost ORGASMIC. If she recorded more tracks like this, I could happily sign up to full-on Nelly Furtado LOONDOM. Every song should contain a church organ CRESCENDO. 07: Try [Acoustic] Essentially Nelly takes out the beat, and adds in a small orchestra. It's pleasant and everything, but not HUGELY different to the original, and I'm not sure this really adds a lot. Score: 6.96
October 1, 201014 yr Album of life. One Trick Pony - 10 Powerless - 10 Explode - 10 Try - 10 Fresh off the boat - 08 Forca - 08 Grass is Green - 09 Picture Perfect - 09 Saturdays - 06 Build You Up - 08 Island Of Wonder - 07 Childhood Dreams - 11 :wub: LOON UP.
October 1, 201014 yr Author Sounds like a mixed bag :( Take out a couple of duds, and you would EASILY have one of my favourite albums of all time. It's one of those records that cherry-picking on I-tunes was meant for. It's worth it for Picture Perfect and Childhood Dreams alone.
October 3, 201014 yr 09 One Trick Pony 09 Powerless 10 Explode 10 Try 07 Fresh off the boat 08 Forca 08 Grass is Green 10 Picture Perfect 08 Saturdays 07 Build You Up 07 Island Of Wonder 10 Childhood Dreams :wub: Still one of my favourite albums.
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