Nelly Furtado Returns With Indie-Pop Offering ‘The Ride’

Jeff Nau

It’s been 17 years since Nelly Furtado’s debut “Whoa Nelly” won over coffeehouses and college kids all over the world. In the time since, she’s released a steady stream of successful records, with sales totaling some 40 million worldwide. She’s also worked with everyone from Elton John to Timbaland —  her collaboration with the latter spawning some eight number-one singles on 2006’s “Promiscuous.”

Suffice it to say, the British Columbia-born singer/songwriter has hardly spent any time resting on her laurels. She spent most of the writing time for her latest, “The Ride,” traveling around Europe and giving voice to her ongoing struggle with depression. To deal with it all, Furtado decided to dive back into ‘research,’ taking a job at her friend’s record store and reflecting on life. Unrequited love, industry pressure and frayed relationships are a few of the subjects tackled throughout, and the result is a pleasurable if off-the-wall mess at times: Nelly is carefree and in control here, genre-jumping at her own leisure; sometimes to her detriment.

If album opener “Cold Hard Truth” is a confused affair, awkwardly mixing together grit, heavy bass, and minimal synth melodies, others like “Pipe Dreams” make up for it. The latter feels like a welcome throwback, Furtado’s light and airy vocals over a simple, almost carnivalesque beat (it’s a theme throughout the album; one song is even called “Carnival Games”). Others, like “Paris,” almost veer into Kate Bush territory, all the while maintaining what could only be described as Furtado’s signature sound: there’s an ethereal, falsetto chorus, bookended by droning and danceable rhythms. “Sticks and Stones” boasts welcome flirtations with dance-punk; “Live,” despite its infectious brand of indie pop, still manages to carry a certain vulnerability with it —  as does “Flatline”: “I’ve got a flatline, I need a vital sign/I don’t feel nothing at all,” Furtado confesses. “Come on, resuscitate me/Why don’t you come and save me?”

Others like “Magic” are full of surprises, bouncing from the anthemic to the poppy, all the while playfully prodding the listener not to take it so seriously: “Have you just grown up and given up?” she wonders aloud. “I know you still see me/I know you still believe/I know I’m in your dreams.”  Furtado delivers one of her best ballads as an album closer in “Phoenix.” “You’re gonna be all right again,” Furtado sings over shimmering, lush keyboards.

If “The Ride” makes one thing clear, it’s that this is the Nelly Furtado album you’ve been waiting for. By turns playful, aggressive, and even proggy at times, she’s never been more in her element. If some of the songs don’t completely work, it’s usually because the genre-flirting feels less genuine and more like an attempt to blend in. But the ones that do work edge on flawless. Her confidence steers her from genre to genre, effortlessly and with all the certainty of someone who’s an industry and songwriting veteran. Most importantly, Nelly Furtado slowly seems to be coming to terms with who she is — and it feels like she’s that much closer to making her magnum opus. Until then, “The Ride” will do.

Nelly Furtado’s “The Ride” is available on Apple Music March 31.