LOOSE - the review thread

Well I'd meant to do this earlier seeing as I had done so for Whoa Nelly and Folklore earlier during the Blue Waffle task, and now seems an appropriate time for some NELLY REMINISCIN'.

Feel free to contribute your own. Now we've saved the Nelly F forum, let's keep it going!

Nelly Furtado - Loose

When Maneater and Promiscuous hit the airwaves, I was convinced that Nelly F was DONE for me. It all smacked of utter desperation. The Folklore album was marvellous, but had obviously underperformed majorly, having sold less than a third of what Whoa Nelly had achieved worldwide. So what to do? Jump aboard the exploding US R&B bandwagon of course! Don some hot-pants, and shake that ass! To an old MOR git like me, this was thoroughly disappointing. If ever someone had sold out, it was dear old Nelly.

Of course, later on she brought out All Good Things and Say It Right, and my faith was promptly restored. She'd still evidently retained some of those singer-songwriter sensibilities, it all just came with added hip-hop beats, and she suddenly became accessible again. And in hindsight, the urban influences were ALWAYS there in her music, most notably her Whoa Nelly album, so I guess all my nay-saying was a little off the mark.

That's not to say the album still isn't without fault. As ever with Nelly, it's not terribly consistent; it's a case of some real highs, and some very real lows. The Spanish tracks still aren't my cup of tea, for I am a Little Englander, and it just all sounds very twee to me. And there are too many occasions where Nelly just slips into robot mode, and seems to think as long as she chucks out a hip-hop beat, she can get away with not doing anything else like actually singing with passion or writing a memorable song (see Let My Hair Down). She'd have been better off scrubbing the "bonus" tracks completely.

On the plus side, it's not difficult to see why this became the behemoth that it was. It's easily the most accessible of her records. She doesn't get too arty-farty with the lyrics, she's keeping it simple with the vocals (now Crazy Frog impersonations here!), and she's got a damn good team behind her (Chris Martin's song-writing at it's best on All Good Things, and we ALL know what this record did for beatmaster Timbaland's profile, who was on the top of his game here). And crucially, she finally succeeded in becoming a true cross-over act; there's something here for both the Heart FM MOR brigade and the Kiss FM crew.

What a shame then that she's pretty much squandered all that momentum just as she was about to hit true superstar status, and now seems to be waddling back to Flopstar Land! Oh well, maybe that means we'll get another Folklore out of her...

07: Afraid [featuring Attitude]

The album opener does a decent enough job as a mission statement; a standard Timbaland beat kicks in, there's a suitably atmospheric and almost threatening-sounding guitar melody, there's a guest rapper, and even Nelly herself is rapping rather than singing through the verses. We are not dealing with Folklore Nelly here. The song in itself is decent enough, but it does lack a proper climax and feels just a little underwhelming. A definite album track.

09: Maneater

NOW things hot up. I absolutely hated this at the time; still being thoroughly unconvinced by Nelly jigging around in hot-pants, and this being the lead single in the UK, Maneater symbolised all that I thought was going wrong with the girl. Of course my view on this has since changed; I don't know whether it's because having later heard the whole album I wasn't as concerned about $l*t Nelly as I once was, or maybe it was just that the following Promiscuous was SO dire that Maneater seemed like a little slice of aural heaven in comparison. But whatever it was, I can now appreciate Maneater for what it is; a punchy, sexy, insanely catchy pop song, with one of the most infectious beats known to man. $l*t with class.

02: Promiscuous [featuring Timbaland]

I really can't explain WHY I loathe this so, especially when it's really not far removed from 9/10 Maneater. But it just seems WORSE. I find the intro melody irritating, the chorus is nowhere near as infectious as Maneater, and Nelly's vocals are at their most paper-thin - I think she's going for seductive-in-a-distant-and-nonchalant feel in the verses, but to my ears she actually just sounds bored. This is just out-and-out R&B whore with NO redemptive features.

06: Glow

This is the sort of song that I would normally abhor, given it sounds like a Britney b-side, but THAT chorus is all over the place in a HOT MESS kind of way, and it works. Wobbly bass, harsh synths and wailing. Not bad.

06: Showtime

Quite inoffensive. I like the lazy, dreamy synths, but the whole track is very understated, which doesn't really fit the whole "We're-in-love-let's-shout-about-it" sentiment of the song. Again, Nelly actually sounds quite bored here, which doesn't particularly help her sell her message.

02: No Hay Igual

The synths are ugly, the beat clunky, the chorus repetitive, and the vocals shrill. Not Nelly's finest moment.

04: Te Busque [with Juanes]

A fairly nondescript Latino-urban duet with a mediocre male vocalist. The fact that the chorus is sung in Spanish is perhaps the only vague thing of note, which isn't the greatest commendation for a song you're ever likely to hear.

10: Say It Right

WONDERFUL. Maneater may have been the #1 hit, but I really do think THIS was the true hit of the 'Loose' era. I believe it was also the first download-only track to REALLY set the charts alight here. Bizarre to think it was three years ago, although that's not to say the track itself still doesn't sound fresh as a daisy. It was a true crossover; urban and contemporary enough (and featuring Timbaland) for the Kiss FM crowd, melodic enough for the MOR/local radio brigade, atmospheric and dark enough to win over the music intelligentsia. A total triumph on all counts. As it is, I'm not sure she'll ever trump this again - one of the best pop singles of the noughties.

08: Do It

A simple, empty, throwaway pop song. Easily her laziest piece of song-writing to date. But yet it's actually fun, light and infectious as hell.

06: In God's Hands

It's pleasant and everything, but as far as Nelly ballads go, it's CERTAINLY no Try. Insipid, bland and oh so pedestrian. To be honest, I always find it's inclusion here slightly baffling, given it's far removed from pretty much EVERYTHING else on the album, and certainly does not fit into the NEW QUEEN OF R&B thing that Nelly was going for. I can only guess it was her token attempt at not totally alienating the Heart FM housewife brigade, but then All Good Things had already done that job...

08: Wait For You

The best of the album tracks, by virtue of there actually been an interesting tune, some gorgeous, dreamy synths in the chorus, and Nelly not actually sounding like she'd rather be doing the dishes.

10: All Good Things (Come To An End)

GORGEOUS. This is the track that began to restore my faith in Nelly after the diabolical Promiscuous. You can definitely tell the Chris Martin influence. What with his other successes writing for Jamelia and Natalie Imbruglia, he clearly needs to work with MORE second-tier female flopstars. I love that this is almost the perfect bridge between Nelly's two opposing sides. A sombre, chill-out melody that wouldn't sound out of place on Folklore, mashed up with the Loose hip-hop beat. Together with Say It Right, this brought some much-needed SUBSTANCE to Nelly's $l*t mission.

01: Let Me Hair Down

f***ING DREADFUL. There's absolutely NO tune to this dirge whatsoever. Which would be fine if this maybe boasted an appealing chorus, some passionate vocals, or even some Ivor Novello-standard lyrics to redeem it. But it doesn't. Nelly basically mumbles her way through the entire thing, like a sullen 10 year old school-kid made to go stand in the corner.

04: Somebody To Love

This also isn't very good, but feels like NIRVANA after THAT atrocity of non-music. It's very Shakira-esque. Ethnic but in a twee and dated way. Latino cheese.

Score: 5.93