Nelly Furtado wants to sex you up
Nelly Furtado, "Loose" (Geffen): Whoa Nelly!
Who knew the folky, Portugese-Canadian Nelly Furtado would turn into a foxy hip-hop chick?
Three years after her last CD, "Folklore," Furtado sheds another layer of skin to reveal a sexier version of herself on "Loose."
By tapping super beat-maker Timbaland to produce the disc, she's made an album that has an overtly street feel with an '80s twist.
It's obvious Furtado's seeking a more sexual image with songs such as "Maneater," "Say It Right" and "Do It," which are all layered with heavy percussion and synthesized melodies.
The lead single, "Promiscuous," is a surreal dance track that has Furtado and Timbaland playing hide-and-seek with a call-and-response chorus.
Timbaland sings (yes, sings), "Promiscuous girl, wherever you are, I'm all alone and it's you that I want." She replies, "Promiscuous boy, I'm all yours, what you waiting for?"
Furtado works in some R&B with "Showtime," an alluring love song, and pays tribute to her roots on the bilingual song, "Te Busque," featuring Juanes.
Free your mind with "Loose" and its experimental arrangements. -- Mary Awosika
Dirtie Blonde, "Dirtie Blonde" (Jive/Zomba): Both the best thing and the worst thing about Dirtie Blonde's debut CD is the singing of Amie Miriello.
At first listen, Miriello draws you in with a bluesy, nasal snarl. But it doesn't take too long before you realize that her bag of tricks is awfully limited. She takes almost exactly the same vocal approach to every song on this album, and the same qualities that at first make her voice appealingly distinctive end up being annoying.
Worse, the gymnastic warbling and sexy groans sound forced, like a conscious imitation of soulfulness.
That'd all be OK if she had stronger material to work with. But all 12 songs (which she co-wrote) are obviously designed for commerciality. They don't have enough character to set the band apart from the crowd, nor sufficiently thoughtful lyrics to appeal to the Ani DeFranco audience they seem to aspire to, and most don't have strong enough hooks to grab mass audiences.
There are some good songs here, no doubt about it. The best is "Bend Over," with an appealing guitar riff (copped from Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz") and a healthy dose of melodic catchiness.
It's clear that Miriello's voice, and maybe her temperament, are best suited for energetic rockers like this one. But "Bend Over" is immediately followed by an awful thing called "Hard Times," in which Miriello's penchant for over-singing reaches its zenith.
All in all, not a bad debut. But it shoots so directly down the middle of the road, it misses the traffic lanes on both sides. -- Marty Clear
Def Leppard, "Yeah!" (Mercury/Universal): This CD of cover versions is basically a lot of fun. The song selection is interesting, the playing is solid, and occasionally the Leppard versions bring some surprising new elements to familiar songs.
But the thing is, Def Leppard fans would probably prefer an album of new songs, and fans of these songs would probably rather hear the originals.
The most pleasant surprise is a reworking of David Essex's "Rock On" that keeps the spooky air of the original but adds a hard-rock edge. The least pleasant is a horrid version of The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" that misses the point entirely.
In between are the bulk of the songs, which are basically just note-for-note re-creations of hits. The Nerves' "Hanging on the Telephone" has been covered by everyone from Blondie to The Pasties, but no one has done it better, or even differently, than the original; Def Leppard is no exception.
One thing "Yeah!" does is show off the shortcomings of Joe Elliott's singing. He's always done just fine with Leppard's own material, but here, when he invites comparison to some of rock's most distinctive vocalists (Ian Hunter, Ray Davies and Rod Stewart in his prime), the blandness of Elliott's voice becomes apparent.
-- Marty Clear