Nelly Furtado is not the most predictable lady.
The Canadian-born songwriter has crammed every genre and style that she could into her music catalog, from pop to folk to dance, all with a worldly vibe and experimental, unpredictable spirit.
So it was hard to see her third album, "Loose," coming because it's a shift to things much more familiar. On "Loose," Furtado teams up with the production expertise of Timbaland, ditching some of her genre mixing ways for easy, gratifying dance thrills.
It's impossible to tell if she decided to move to this safer type of music for more commercial success or if she just woke up one day and said, "I think I'll make a dance album."
The good news is, it doesn't really matter — "Loose" delivers some excellent beats, even if it tucks away some of Furtado's song-to-song variety.
"Afraid" is solid dance material, especially if DJs are kind enough to cut the song before the middle school choir kids chime in at the end. The song is a good choice to start the album off — it's mid-tempo, ringing beeps are a warm-up for the two best songs on the album, the singles "Maneater" and "Promiscuous."
"Maneater" is a bombastic assault on the drums that sounds like it was recorded with Furtado dancing on a table top with a small army behind her cheering her on. What's even better, Furtado keeps at least one of her trademarks alive — being a conniving little tease.
Another dance-worthy track is also the busiest song on the album, "Wait For You." The song's hyper, drum, machine beats and claps sound too familiar at first, but the song is ultra-layered with Furtado's excellent voice and a showering of synthesizer sounds and snippets of instruments that give it some life.
Also worthy of replay, "Showtime" is a chillin'-in-bed slow jam in the spirit of TLC and '90s Janet Jackson.
At times it sounds like there are real instruments being played, like on "No Hay Igual," but Furtado never veers too far from the heavily produced pop. She also, sadly, doesn't sing with any of that weird, scatterbrained inflection that she did on her past two albums, when the speed of her voice would change 10 times in one song.
"Loose" lays down a handful of showy dance tracks, which mix awkwardly with a couple of serious songs that mourn love lost. "In God's Hands," a reflection on what went wrong in a relationship, puts an abrupt stop to the party. But although lyrics like "Our love's floating up in the sky in heaven/Where it began back in God's hands," will make the club kids start fiddling uncomfortably with their cell phones. The song wouldn't be too unbearable, if she stopped there.
But the last track, "All Good Things (Come To An End)," lays it on even thicker. Plodding along a uneventful beat, Furtado unfortunately closes the album with some sad sap lyrics: "Flames to dust/Lovers to friends/Why do all good things come to an end?" she asks.
And then … leaves.
Just as the lingering sweat on your face starts to dry, the album is finished. Nelly is gone — probably for a year or two while she hopefully reinvents herself again. Time will tell if "Loose" is just another check mark for an artist who wants to try everything, or a comfortable place to make albums for years to come.
In the meantime, turn "Maneater" back on, shut up, and dance.
