Album notes |
Personnel includes: Nelly Furtado (vocals); Field (guitar); Camara Kambon (piano); Mike Elizondo (bass); Russ Miller (drums); Luis Orbegoso (congas, toms) Victor Rebelo (percussion); Daniel Stone (triangle)."I'm Like A Bird" won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.On WHOA NELLY, young songstress Nelly Furtado defies expectations by mixing and matching styles and approaches. The overriding production aesthetic includes R&B/hip-hop loops, beats, and samples mated with pure pop touches and some quirky electronic swoops and lurches. Furtado's songs combine hip-hop attitude with occasional Latin rhythmic accents, but the most striking aspect of this recording is the lyrics.While it wouldn't be difficult to imagine these arrangements being completely effective framing generic pop sentiments, Furtado places no constrictions on her lyrical muse, using unusual imagery, odd syntax, and inventive scenarios that immediately set her apart from the Top 40 crowd. References to a "Mobius strip," "proper grammar," and the "North American dream" are the rule rather than the exception in Furtado's pleasingly left-field style. Her vocals and the production are so seamless that if you're not paying attention, the unusual lyrics might slip right by. If that happens, Furtado will have made some real headway in subverting the pop mainstream. |
Editorial reviews |
Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2000.Entertainment Weekly (12/29/00, p.140) - Ranked #10 in EW's Top 10 Albums of 2000.Rolling Stone (10/12/00, p.92) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - ...A wild-ass pop go-go, filled with songs that pursue adventure yet could still make the hit parade.Q (4/01, p.100) - 3 stars out of 5 - ...[Her] self-sufficient, Beck-inspired hip hop folk makes for a refreshing change....[her] songs are playful, unaffected and full of little surprises...Entertainment Weekly (10/20/00, pp.75-6) - ...Carries you away on a sonic jetstream....one of the year's most consistently pleasureable delights... - Rating: A Rolling Stone (01/04/2001) |
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Blame it on the bossa nova, but this chick has got soul. By filtering her Portuguese roots through the trip-hop she was weaned on, Nelly Furtado creates a hypnotic form of R&B/alterna-pop that at times sounds like Fiona Apple, Macy Gray, and Gwen Stefani all rolled into a Portishead song. Cutting her teeth at four Lilith Fair dates before even having a record contract, Furtado seems far accelerated beyond her 21 years. Listen and you can hear the Portuguese fado tradition, Brazilian beats, flashy urban rhymes, enough snap-crackle-and-pop to fill your breakfast bowl. Put your ear closer to the speaker, though, and you can sense that this is the sound of a multicultural young woman finding her own identity through all the pop she's been fed. If you are one of those types who likes to sing along to soaring vocals--or one who likes to get hip to a new star before she goes supernova--this is an album to own. --Heidi Sherman
Album Description
UK edition of the hit 2000 album includes four bonus tracks. 'Oude Estas', 'I Feel You' feat. Esthero, 'My Love Grows Deeper' (Single Version) & the CD-ROM video for the first single, 'I'm Like A Bird'.