*claps*

Nelly Furtado's current album campaign isn't going very well. The first single, "Big Hoops (Bigger The Better - No Innuendo, I'm Really Talking About My Earrings, Promise)" was a minor hit in the UK but a flop almost everywhere else, and despite being a bonkers piece of modern pop brilliance, its follow-up, the album's eponymous "Spirit Indestructible", was an even bigger flop.

So now she's pulling out the big guns before the label presumably completely give up and it's this. Well... it could be worse. It's definitely a grower, and although it hurt our heads the first time, we've now come round to it and are fans of the ditty and accompanying video, if not stans.

Unfortunately, the time for a moderate grower with only one riff, two hooks and no big euphoric moment is NOT at the point where you're supposed to be salvaging a major comeback from disaster.

Also, we love you Nelly, you keep the quirk at the centre of major label female popstars alive. But you really shouldn't have disappeared for almost 7 years at the point when it's most key to cement your legacy and status. Otherwise you end up with this: great pop music, mostly ignored, no rabid fanbase to propel you to the top and what will probably result in a tiny budget for your next project. 'Just sayin' as people seem to love to say.

YES OUR QUEEN

Nelly Furtado is one of those huge household-name major league chart topping popstars who somehow manages to straddle the vast chasm between strange, smart, adventurous and commercially successful (see also: Madonna, Shakira, Utada etc.).

The infectious earwormy but non-earth-shattering lead single from her recent album, "Big Hoops (Size Queens Unite)", failed to hit big but this - this is more like it.

The song opens with a weird hymnal Tori Amos-esque baroque-style keyboard-based confessional moment before blossoming into a huge pop number

Anthemic, odd, structurally unconventional, tuneful, soaring and euphoric. We can't wait to soberly (... ahem) twerk and grind to this with tears of joy streaming down our faces  at a nighttime establishment.

Precarious

We sort of understand why some people find this grating or irksome. Nelly has the potential for true greatness, and whilst this is fun with a capital F and several exclamation points, it's not changing the game or anybody's life.

And yes, we're sure Furtado can and will do better, but for now you can enjoy this which has a super brilliant, droll set of opening shots of Ms. Nelly on stilts strutting down a street with her poe-face on.

Quite good!

Pretty & Vacant

Fresh off the press, here is the album artwork (standard on the left, deluxe on the right) for Nelly Furtado's new long player: The Spirit Indestructible. Not the kind of thing you'd expect from a major label superstar, but Nelly's never been your typical major label superstar.

She may be looking borderline vacant in this picture, but it could also be that one of her contact lenses has drifted and she can't actually focus. Or maybe she's deep in thought. Or she's trying to hold a gas bubble in and remain composed. Or she's having a breakdown. Or an epiphany. The possibilities are endless. Deep!

We don't have a tracklisting yet (we don't think) but that's enough, right? Just as a special treat, here's her album artwork chronology because you KNOW we love those. Do you love them? We don't care. We'll do it anyway.


Nope, the logo/font change still bugs us :(

Wow, Nelly.

Nelly Furtado's new single is out in full (well, it's a radio rip) and it's great. We like it a lot. It hasn't changed our lives. It doesn't re-invent the wheel (hopefully there'll be some stuff on her album that does) but it's a nice, refreshing reminder of why she's one of the most consistently underrated and brilliant people ever in pop, the end.

Quite sad that she's modified her logo/ She, along with Mariah Carey, seemed to be one of the only ladies in pop championing font-based consistency and appealing to our slightly OCD but very discerning, aesthetic-wise, hearts. But it's a small niggle. We'll get over it. It's not a drastic change. We won't stay up all night crying bout it. We won't *wipes away crystalline tear*

Here's what the song sounds like (euphorically abrasive with a big beat drop, if that's possible):

YAAAAAY

Nelly Furtado is BACK-CRACK-A-LACK-PADDY-WHACK with a new song about big earrings that Gretchen Wieners can no longer wear because Regina George told her that they were her thing.

It sounds pretty good although, babes, is there gonna be a melody too? That would be nice. We like what we hear. Darkchild produced it, 'appaz'.

On her Youtube, Nelly, or her people, or her assistant or whoever controls this sort of thing has written the following block of prose:

Half-child,half-woman. Those big jeans and hoops unstoppable but even more unstoppable the swagger. Becoming the myth. Mythical poster creature. Hair gel hardened under a mound of fresh bun. Gold hoops borrowed from older sister. White Sox jersey borrowed from a friend who's a boy with a crush on you. Oh but the swagger. The Bigger The Better. Waiting to be invited into the cipher. Look at me. On this street. I took the bus down and I've got my Big Hoops on.

Well that's certainly something to think about, isn't it?

Clever!

Nelly Furtado has a Greatest Hits album out at the moment. You might not have noticed, what with it pretty much bombing all over the place, but it's out. The genius DJ Earworm done one of his incredible mega-mashups involving all her singles. You can watch it above. Deets aboot (oops, we came over all Canadian) the album below:


It's out now.

Something to calm your nerves...

After the trauma of watching a senselessly talented young man senselessly act like a twot, you might need some cheering up so bask in the glow of Nelly Furtado's beauty. This is the album cover for her current project, a Spanish language album, and if the music's as lovely as she, it may be a lovely thing indeed.

The Return of Ms. Furtado...

This is the single cover for Nelly's new Spanish-language single, "Manos al Aire", which you can preview here. It sounds good, doesn't it?