Nelly Furtado
The Spirit Indestructible

Nelly Furtado, who was she? Perhaps the carefree avian hippie who demanded the lights be turned off from the green fields? Or the promiscuous man-eater at the peak of the Timbaland-Timberlake trend? Well, our Portuguese-Canadian diva, initially seen as the savior of nonconformist pop and thus the heroine of the clubs, who quickly transformed into a luscious arcsis-explosion, has again managed to surprise everyone by producing one of the best radio-mainstream albums of this bizarre 2012, filled with declining trash-electronic glam, abhorrent earworms for fourth-rate dancehalls, and songs similar to "Zecchino d'Oro" that are even more lucrative than the profitable sacred monsters (domestic and otherwise).

The Spirit Indestructible arrives three years after the lukewarmly-received Spanish-tinged Mi Plan and especially six years after the global success of Loose, the album of definitive consecration as a true pop star capable of amassing a solid ten million copies and two number-one spots on the very commercial American Billboard charts. Conceived and produced with the essential and indispensable assistance of Timbaland, Loose—although well-crafted—nonetheless left many fans of the early Woodstock-style Nelly, the lively, alternative, eco-friendly, folkloristic neo-flower child who was inadvertently catapulted into the era of great musical consumerism, of hit-churning artists, and strippers with microphones and disco balls. The drastic change in look, the hip-swaying in tight jeans, and Timbaland's company were not, however, able to eradicate the folk-funky side of the illustrious protégée: while keeping the significant sexy shift of her last English album alive, Nelly resurrected from the mothballs all the creativity, fantasy, and unmistakable richness of her early productions, forging an "indestructible spirit" overflowing with sounds, styles, inspirations, and colors. And so it is that the enveloping warmth of folk-rock enters into symbiosis with lively electronic hints, retro ballads, hip-hop digressions, and, naturally, the seminal tribal-ethnic repertoire of her debut.

The Spirit Indestructible is therefore a true treasure trove of multi-flavored propositions that could receive positive receptions from the staunchest pop radio fans: it starts with the dark synth-breakbeat mood of the unjustly overlooked first single Big Hoops (Bigger The Better), then continues with the Arab-tribal dances of the melancholic Waiting For The Night and the funky raw hip-hop of Parking Lot. In the same direction lies the gangsta urban of Something, one of the most successful tracks, also performed with rapper Nas.

Diving further into the tracklist, one cannot overlook Bucket List, a Try 2.0 capable of triggering nostalgia for bygone times, the ethnic-dance atmosphere of the equally snubbed Spirit Indestructible, the not cacophonous electro-trance experimentation at Circles, and finally the splendid Miracles, a sort of new wave-ambient ballad immersed in the best Oriental suggestions. As an appendix, I also wish to point out in the deluxe edition (alas, the market-friendly mania for the special edition has not yet subsided!!) the warm reggae embrace of Don't Leave Me, just to enrich an already exquisitely and richly set table.

Is Nelly Furtado the winner of the 2012 pop marathon? Or does she always remain the big doll without precise aims in the music biz, halfway between the basest, most hypocritical commercialism and a pseudo nonconformist hippie-underground only wielded to provide the mild semblance of an anti-diva from the charts? It's pointless to give a precise answer to such an unfair question: what matters is that Miss Nelly Furtado has perfectly identified the balance between the essential and the superfluous in music, a coordination from which the eternally fearful of flopping and the promoters of the usual recycled, trivial catchy tunes zoom away at 220 km/h. The Spirit Indestructible a gold record for genuineness and sobriety on the score? To you, sagacious fans of the "a bit of everything," the difficult (and I hope not fierce) verdict.

Nelly Furtado, The Spirit Indestructible

Spirit Indestructible - Big Hoops (Bigger The Better) - High Life - Parking Lot - Something - Bucket List - The Most Beautiful Thing - Waiting For The Night - Miracles - Circles - Enemy - Believers (Arab Spring).