The Good: Some decent lyrics, Moments where vocals reach potential
The Bad: Inconsistent music, attitude, bulk of vocals fall short of potential
The Basics: With a disappointingly average debut, Nelly Furtado creates a remarkably inconsistent album with generally decent poetry and buckshot musical styles.
I like to listen to artists in order of creation, enjoying for those I see potential in to listen to the potential evolve - hopefully - into the potential actualized. Listening to the last three radio singles by Nelly Furtado has encouraged me to listen to her latest album, but before I did that I wanted to listen to her debut. The truth is, I had been tempted to pick up Whoa, Nelly! when "I'm Like A Bird" debuted. I have a thing about trying to support new artists. As it is, I withdrew when her second single from Whoa, Nelly!, "Turn Off The Light" was released. It convinced me that Nelly Furtado was a one-hit wonder. In fact, I recall distinctly reading an article on Michelle Branch where Branch was gushing over meeting Nelly Furtado and my sentiment was that Branch had it backwards. I see Michelle Branch as having longer term appeal and staying power than Furtado.
Listening to Whoa, Nelly! did not change that feeling at all, even knowing the massive success Furtado is having with her current endeavor.
Whoa, Nelly! is a solidly pop music debut for recording artist Nelly Furtado and to her credit, Furtado deserves the distinction of being acknowledged as an artist; she wrote or co-wrote all twelve tracks on Whoa, Nelly! Her two hit singles from the album were solely written by her and Nelly Furtado plays acoustic guitar on the second track on the disc.
The thing about "I'm Like A Bird," when I heard it on the radio, was that it seemed instantly like Furtado had a great vocal potential. There are moments on her first single where she has a beautiful, bold voice that explodes as an emotive force that captivates the listener. When she poetically cries out, "And though my love is rare / Though my love is true / I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away . . ." it is wrenching and amazing.
But within a line she reveals the weakness that crops up throughout Whoa, Nelly!, which is a tendency to devolve into the popular music tendency to produce a nasal, whiny sound. A perfect example of this comes from Britney Spears; listen to her when she is natural vs. when she is produced, so many of her songs take on an annoying nasal quality that is a rejection of any natural talent she possesses. Similarly, when Furtado wretches out "Your faith in me brings me to tears / Even after all these years / And it pains me so much to tell . . ." there is that same lack of natural voice that Spears invokes. It mortgages natural talent for something someone somewhere has defined as more marketable. They're wrong.
I am able to say that because several of Furtado's tracks use a very natural vocal sound. Despite the lack of lyrical quality of "Shit On The Radio (Remember The Days)," the song sounds very effortless for Furtado. Similarly, the quality of Furtado's voice is undeniable on "Legend" as she opens with "He wants to be, he wants to be, with everything under the sun / He wants to be, he wants to be, with everything under the sun / And like a legend that rises and then falls I cannot be his only one . . ."
Conversely, "Baby Girl" is almost unlistenable with its nasal sound. Furtado's natural voice is almost completely obscured by an affect that makes the lyrics more of a whiny shriek than and articulate expression of poetry.
And Furtado is a fairly diverse poet, taking on love, having fun, and teenage sexuality on Whoa, Nelly! The album is filled with the angst of leaving relationships, not wanting to be tied down and the desire for something meaningful. It is worthy of credit that she is willing to put so much of herself out in her debut.
While the lyrical diversity is a strength, her musical diversity comes across as a weakness on Whoa, Nelly! I respect an artist willing to use more than guitars, drum, piano and bass. Furtado does that, opening the album - in fact - with violins. The problem here is that for a debut pop recording, something Furtado states in the liner notes she is trying to create, this effect of having so many different sounds has a net result of seeming like the buckshot approach to creating music. It is like Furtado does not know what she wants to do with her poetry, so it all is jumbled together and the listener is left without the cohesive experience of an album that one might want. Interestingly enough, I believe the album is stronger as singles than as an album. More of the singles could have done well in different markets, but the problem is putting them side by side - at least the way they are on Whoa, Nelly! results in a listening experience that is more haphazard than cohesive and diverse.
Whoa, Nelly! has the trappings of a one-hit wonder with "I'm Like A Bird" as the distinctive track which was rightly promoted as the best single. I'm surprised Furtado went with the dance track "Turn Off The Light" as the second track, as opposed to the much more soulful "Legend." But then, having listened to the album and seeing the choices her record company went with, I'm not surprised that Whoa, Nelly! did not achieve more success and Furtado's career did not explode into immediate success.
The best track is "I'm Like A Bird," and despite a lot of inconsistency in the latter half of the album, the third track, "Baby Girl" stands out as the lowest point of the album.
For other pop music albums, please visit the reviews of:
Hotel Paper - Michelle Branch
Bomb In A Birdcage - A Fine Frenzy
Tigerlily - Natalie Merchant
4.5/10
For other music reviews, be sure to check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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