Nelly Furtado - The Ride

The Ride
Nelly Furtado
Tiger Rating: 6.5 / 10
Pop / R&B

'The Ride' is Nelly Furtado's comeback and sixth studio album and is as varied and experimental as ever. On it the Canadian chameleon cooly dishes out a variety of ballads, smooth r & b pop and the occassional small stage anthem, but the velvet bow that ties all the seemingly disparate pieces together would be the effortlessness it all exudes.


It's a shock when you realize that the raven haired oddling has been around for 17 years now. It was in late 2000 that we first heard of Furtado's claim to be "like a bird", and since then she has proved herself to be not only likable (despite our best efforts to overlook her), but also formidable in her ability to take any genre, bend it and wear it like a Björk outfit. Her mostly self produced debut album felt like it was a forerunner to artists like Claire Boucher and Lourdes, with it's fiercely independent approach to making music the way she wanted to make it and it's subtle statements on post modern feminism. She has always been sassy, brave and free spirited in the way that she presents herself, and yet  vulnerable and honest in the same breath, making for someone who is far from contrived and yet not quite common.
She seems to have fully dug into this ability to not only straddle the most disparate genres with ease, but to be at once swaggering and delicate on this album.
The approach with 'The Ride' seems to have been: take one radio ready pop song and manipulate it until it's edgy and unusual. Synths bubble and seethe beneath the chorus of 'Sticks and Stones'. The blippy funk bass on album opener 'Cold Hard Truth' is punctuated by sparkling keys, new wave accents from some retro keyboard and a near gospel chorus. All the elements work surprisngly well together. Co-writer John Congleton proves he is a Grammy winner for a reason. The man's a genius. His presence is felt heavily on 'Palaces', with strings, synths and that funk bass elevating Nelly's vocals to something heavenly as she sings "Break free from the chains / into love". There is a retro disco remix scratching at the door of that track.
Spacy ballad 'Phoenix' closes the album gently but confidently, sounding like an ambient Goldfrapp rip off with its subtle echoed vocals and near-dub percussion. It's whistful, restrained and appealing.
As with most of her work, the true genius of each track is probably only uncovered upon the third or fourth listen. Even if that 'genius' is only in her music's ability to make you like it, despite your best efforts to resist her.


The only mis step the album takes, and it's rather a jarring one, is in the songwriting. Phrases, metaphors and trite imagery all dominate with an unfortunately heavy hand. On 'Carnival Games', life is compared to a fairground, with Nelly ruthlessly plumbing every possible paralell life might have to a carnival.
On 'Tapdancing', a bland ballad saved only by its unusual electronic instrumentation and clattery snares, she fails to further explore the metaphor, resulting in a song that sounds like she's singing "Ted Danson". Weird.
Three guesses as to what the imagery on 'Sticks and Stones' is about.
It's the only disappointment on an album that feels free, fresh and fully present. At least she is consistent in her failure to steer away from the obvious.


Even when Nelly Furtado takes a stumble in her career (2012's 'Spirit Indestructible' we're looking at you), it's more likely as a result of the public not being ready for what she has to offer. Idolator recently posted a flashback article about Furtado's last album and in paticular mentioning how the single 'Big Hoops (The Bigger The Better)' has aged incredibly well, and possibly would have been more sucessful had it been released in today's anything goes music market.
There is undeniably a backlash at artists who have taken a haitus of more than a few years and who try to come back. Time can only tell how well this album will fare, but prospects aren't great. Musicians take their career into their hands when they dare let life happen to them (read: have relationships, begin families - normal stuff), but maybe the spirit indestructible will win out for the girl who once soared above it all.
WVS