REVIEW: NELLY FURTADO - 7

3.5/5

Nellyville

Whoa, Nelly! That's what everyone was posting, when Furtado hit the stage last year. The Canadian, Portuguese superstar singer from British Colombia on the comeback trail. And what a comeback! You can call it! Just like she told Elle Magazine in Canada, feeling the most confident in her life. In the prime of her life, like her new millennium debut, or when Timbaland set his beats 'Loose' on her in '06 (the year this writer moved to Toronto, Canada. What a real time to be alive, Drake). Her nation needs this, her first album since 'The Ride' of 2017.

All '7' and we'll watch them fall, like Prince said when the icon turned himself into a symbol, for the princess who has become a queen of the dance floor. Smoking the competition in the same week we get more pop for your weasel with the new album from Katy Perry, and another one from Gwen Stefani this month. No doubt about it, Nelly Furtado has won like the Raptors a decade after 'Loose' or like Kendrick over Drizzy Drake. She's not like us, she's on a whole other plane with her seventh seal. Seven years after her last release. Painted black on her naked back above, the all American denim for the one who took the US and us by storm in black and white. The 'Like A Bird', 'Maneater' and 'Promiscuous' singer returning with the hits 'Love Bites' (with Tove Love and SG Lewis for the clubs), 'Honesty' and the 'Corazón' anthem, featuring Bomba Estéreo.

The 'Crown' (featuring Blxckie) fits like Elizabeth Debicki playing Princess Diana for one of the best for the record. But it's 'All Comes Back' that's the real declaration for the 'Showstopper'. All the way back to a unanimous, 'Untitled' classic closer. "Funny how we run to the danger/Like we got a lesson to learn/And we don't think we deserve it/When happiness ain't served", Nelly poignantly plays on a track with Charlotte Day Wilson. Collaborations continue with Gray Hawken ('Better For Worse') and Williane 108, Charmie, Taborah Johnson, and Tynomi Banks (now, that's a mouthful) on 'Save Your Breath'. But it's empowering anthems like 'Ready For Myself' that everybody gets like "You slept on and I woke up (Woke up)/Diamond rings and pixie dust/Can't nobody buy my love/I woke up for me." And you will too.

Recorded in The Orange Lounge (Toronto, Ontario), Paramount Studios (Los Angeles, California), Westlake Studios (Los Angeles, California), Phase One Studios (Scarborough, Ontario), Engine Room (New York City), Milk Boy Studios (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Abstrackt Sound Studio (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) recording houses. Around 400–500 songs over a four-year period were made for this album. Furtado referring to the different tracks and takes as a collection of "random seashells", not all like. From opening the 'Floodgates' to a 'Fantasy'. Beautiful ballads, 'Better Than Ever'. Before hitting the floor again to 'Take Me Down'. No wonder the swan song has no title, like the album's number. "Fashion collections don't really have titles, they're just called collection number 10 or 21. This is my collection seven." Like Chanel, it feels so good like sweat on the skin as you begin to dance again. Lucky number seven for us. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Corazón' (Feat. Bomba Estéreo), 'Crown', 'All Comes Back'.

Spin This: Nelly Furtado 'Loose'.