A Lesson in Mainstream Breaking

When Nelly Furtado first made her appearance with “I’m Like A Bird” all those years ago, I couldn’t say that I was a fan. Really, though, I respect tangible changes in music. Nelly just wasn’t up my alley. And even while her debut album, Whoa Nelly! faired pretty well on the charts, her follow-up, Folklore, didn’t break much of the mold.

Now, enter Loose, which spawned the singles “Promiscous” and “Maneater”, two songs which are both guilty pleasures on my playlist. Honestly, I’m surprised that I like her, too.

Nelly’s shift in not only music, but image, has offended some, and gained the attention of others. In “Promiscous”, Nelly shares the spotlight with Timbaland in a sort of teasing metaphor of a fling, which sounds almost wrong for someone who just had a daughter a couple years back. But really, after breaking off her relationship with her child’s father, she had to get back into the game somehow. Perhaps this was really what the woman needed, was a real ego boost.

So now, instead of going folk, she’s gone down the stream of the main, joined up with Timbaland (which was a good move, really, because I feel that the guy actually has some credibility to him), and started singing about curious fun. This kind of sound has to fit in somewhere, and seeing that Jewel botched up her attempt that one summer, somebody had to do it the right way. Nelly, she pulled it off.

I am no mainstream music fan; in fact, I have a hard time even keeping up with mainstream singles, which was why I didn’t even hear “Promiscous” in its entirity until about three weeks ago. I haven’t yet gone out to buy Loose, but I’m considering it. The songs are actually well-tuned and catchy – and not in that too-derived Fall Out Boy kind of way. It’s not perfect, it isn’t entirely wholesome, but in the realm of everything that mainstream music can offer, I can only give Nelly Furtado too much respect.

She isn’t THAT bad.

And if I was that much of a hot momma, I’d probably be dressing up like her as well.