Album Review: Nelly Furtado’s “The Ride” Is Worth Getting On!

Do not underestimate Nelly Furtado; that is the ultimate testament to The Ride. Like Beck, Shakira, and even Beyonce, Furtado has had both her sonic/image reinventions. The Ride is Furtado’s delve into a more indie-electronica realm. Yet, one thing that never changes is Furtado’s penchant for lyrics that promote perseverance and self-awareness.

I do not think I need to warn that, instrumentally, Furtado’s The Ride is unlike any of her previous work. Fans of Nelly Furtado have come to expect her sonic playfulness/ chameleon mentality. What is exciting about The Ride is that it is pop with hints of punk-rock and fusions of electronica. Emotionally, the album ranges. Seedy club- tracks like “Cold Hard Truth” and “Palaces” find Nelly singing of her growing consciousness into how her relationships are not working, at least in terms of love. Nelly Furtado has to be one of the few artists that can make a life-epiphany sound danceable; as if we party at night to observe our problems. Yet, this is what we love about Nelly Furtado: she always puts into song her desires to be GENUINELY seen and heard. Thus, no matter where she goes musically, poetically, she remains relevant. Tracks such as, “Tap Dancing” and “Phoenix” see Furtado using soft electro rhythms to embody a twilight feel; she wants her inner beauty to burn like ambers in the night. The result is songs that WILL be played by every person who completely understands Nelly’s needs/dreams of having her voice cherished. Yet, she is not talking about her singular, singing voice that sounds as crisp and yearning as it did when nearly 20 years ago. She is talking about her spiritual voice that journeys through The Ride to show that life can be a set of carnival attractions and rollercoasters, and you have to decide which ones are worth going on.

As Furtado says, ”It’s okay to maybe get off The Ride once in a while, and reflect on everything you’ve experienced.” Songs such as “Pipe Dreams”, “Islands of Me”, and “Sticks And Stones” encapsulate Furtado’s curious nature both musically and personally. We all want to do so many things, and, at times, the hardest choices to make come from having several options. Similar to the carnival reference, we enter life’s theme park with wide-eyes, ready to join in one everything we see, but after a few rides we get tired and start to get selective. Said songs, including “Paris Sun” and “Bliss” promote having a healthy balance of curious wonder and pure fun, especially with their splashes of funkadelic guitars. I have to say that Nelly Furtado is a master at picking up the waves of music. Whoa Nelly!/ Folklore was an introduction to Nelly’s folk-pop/ genre-bending capacities. Loose, Mi Plan, and Spirit Indestructible furthered Nelly’s ability to capture music waves by combining 1980’s, Reggae, and Hip Hop influences, and now The Ride is Furtado’s trip into 1980’s inspired/ modern electro-pop. Brilliant! Moreover, The Ride is a 12 tracks (15 In The Deluxe Version) offering music that will give you both a physical and spiritual reason to move. For More Information On Nelly Furtado And To Buy The Ride On March 31 Click Here.