Nelly Furtado — Loose

Loose

Geffen/Universal

Leah Collins (CHARTattack)

07/04/2006 8:15pm

Nelly Furtado's "loose" now, like every dime-a-dozen hip-pop princess. She's picked up some skimpy new club wear (to show off her midriff, and not the photoshopped one she was furious at FHM for putting on their cover four years ago), some "My Humps" dance moves and even a Justin Timberlake cameo for her new video ("Promiscuous"). The new look is awkward (in that Jewel-turned-pop-tart kind of way), but the new sound isn't.

Timbaland-produced beats bring Furtado into the twisted urban pop world she's been flirting with since her days of collaborating with Swollen Members and remixing Missy Elliott's "Get Yer Freak On." Sometimes it works. "Maneater," which sounds more like a slowed-down take on Flashdance's "Maniac" than anything by Hall And Oates, is like a radio-friendly M.I.A., with Furtado's signature nasal trill soaring over '80s synths and a zombie movie beat. The reggaeton-flavoured "No Hay Igual" layers enough percolating percussion to be a guilty dancefloor pleasure.

Still, it sounds as though Furtado's swapped her personality for some cliched sex appeal. She became a star during her scrubbed-clean "I'm Like A Bird" days because nobody sounded like this girl from Victoria, B.C. On Loose, her voice resembles "Lucky Star"-era Madonna ("Glow") and Gwen Stefani ("In God's Hands"), and it's hard to dig the real Furtado out from under the dance beats, however fun they are.

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