Furtado offers pop fans an icon with actual depth
By TOM OGORLAZEK
Scene Music Critic
While the boy bands and teeny bopper idols churn out platinum tripe, there does in fact exist a more thoughtful side of the music industry that succeeds in finding fresh new acts with actual creative ability and panache. As Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are marketed for mass consumption, the thinking man with a soft spot for pretty-faced artists has an alternative, and her name is Nelly Furtado.
Furtado represents all that multicultural society can hope for in pop music: a Canadian child of Portuguese parents. The 19-year-old Furtado reveals startling maturity for someone with so few years behind her. In travels to Europe with her parents, she became captivated by the rhythms and styles of the Portuguese sound, which has evolved in concert with Brazilian music over the centuries of the close ties between the two countries. Indeed, if asked who she sees as influencing her music she cites compatriot poet Leonard Cohen, father of bossa nova Antonio Carlos Jobim, soul rebel Bob Marley and hip-hop revolutionaries De La Soul.
Adopting an eclectic style in her own music, Furtado takes it upon herself to create a sort of fusion between Old World and New — between the traditional, Latin sounds of her personal cultural heritage and the new bass-driven sounds of American hip-hop. In doing so, she creates some amazing effects. The first track begins with a string quartet and the chirping of teensy finches — until Furtado inserts a rhythm guitar and beatbox behind her strong vocals. Over the course of the album she uses everything from micro-synthesizers and turntable scratches to the berimbau and the udu (two instruments with which few popular music fans are familiar).
In addition to instrumental diversity, Furtado varies styles from track to track — sometimes singing coyly, betraying her youth; sometimes rapping to build up an image of strength and experience. And although it is not until the final two songs that she chooses to break out the Portuguese, it is well worth the wait — these are two of the more intricately arranged and exotic offerings on the record.
Behind those hypnotic blue-grey eyes, Furtado's mind has created a sound almost completely unique to herself, doing so by borrowing from creative strands that span the musical spectrum. The hip-hop influences are perhaps more pervasive than the others, but the hints, sometimes subtle but frequently overt, of Latin and World Music allow her to shirk the constraints of traditional genre. Listening to this album, one might not know where exactly to place it in a record store.
She describes herself as an artist, put on Earth to create real music that genuinely inspires, not just cheap sounds for MTV.
Perhaps this is the key to her allure. As she struggles to truly create, she can reach her audience on a level that manufactured singers can't hope to touch. Although some of Furtado's lyrics do suffer from hollowness, and it is somewhat difficult to believe her references to love lost and deep emotional history, it is clear that even at her weakest points she exposes those other acts for what they are in essence — weak sauce.
She lets us know that she's been around, lived her life well thus far, and in short, that she's not that innocent. But she makes this fact clear in a much more interesting, complex, and believable way than those weak saucers could ever hope to achieve.
All Scene Stories for Tuesday, January 23, 2001
