Nelly Furtado Brings the Punk-Hop On New Album
After a year and a half spent writing new songs, traveling the
world to collaborate with Pharrell Williams, Coldplay’s Chris
Martin and producer Nellee Hooper (No Doubt, Madonna), Nelly
Furtado is finally ready to release her third album,
Loose, on May 23rd.
“It was a very indulgent experience,” says the eclectic Canadian
pop singer. “It was actually the most idyllic sort of album-making
ever. It’s sort of every artist’s dream, where you’re flown around
the world, just kind of having a good time and making music.”
In August, when it came time to lay down the tracks, Furtado
turned to hip-hop talent Timbaland, who featured her on Missy
Elliott’s “Get UR Freak On” remix in 2001. When Interscope
President Jimmy Iovine played Furtado some of the producer’s latest
tracks, her reaction was “Wow! It sound[ed] like he’s listening to
all the same stuff as me — everything from System of a Down to
Bloc Party and Death From Above 1979, and a lot of Coldplay, too.”
Within no time, says Furtado, “I was in Miami and having the time
of my life.”
Working in the evenings, the pair laid down ten of
Loose‘s thirteen tracks, forging a new genre from their
shared influences. “We call it ‘punk-hop,'” she says of most of the
album’s sound. “We were thinking, ‘Let’s do modern Eurythmics —
You’re Dave and I’m Annie. Let’s make this modern, poppy, spooky
music.’ And we achieved that on some of the tracks.”
The track “Maneaters,” Furtado says, is “a ‘couture pop’ song,
where it’s in your face and very fashionable, stylistic and
of-the-moment,” while “No Hay Igual” takes its cues from reggaeton.
“I didn’t know what reggaeton was until I went to Miami and
Pharrell’s like, ‘You’re crazy!'” she confesses. “He played me a
reggaeton song, and then I was like, ‘Holy shit, it’s great!'” She
was inspired to write “No Hay Igual,” in Spanish, nearly on the
spot.
The album closer “All Good Things,” which features Chris Martin,
was actually a last-minute addition, after Furtado bumped into her
old friend during August’s MTV Movie Awards. “I was telling him
what I was up to, and he’s like, ‘I love Timbaland. Can I come
by?'” she recalls. “But [Tim’s] like a big dude, and Chris was
scared to sit down at the keyboard. I’m like, ‘Chris, sit down.
Let’s make some music.’ I’m always the instigator.”
It was, in part, these spontaneous creative decisions that led
Furtado to name the album Loose. “I left in all the sour
notes; I left in all the giggling,” she says. “It’s good
times.”
JOLIE LASH