I’m kind of lost. I’ve just seen the new Nelly Furtado video and I’m really thinking I should be worried or lost in admiration of the guts she, once again, has shown.
Even though I thought her comeback would be massive, it’s not really looking like it’s happening for her. Her latest video is even looking like a combination of footage shot while auditioning for a TV show and a $500 music video for an independent artist. It’s mixing some intentionally, artsy looking shots with some candid camera looking shots that appear to be taken by a cell phone. It’s not looking anything like the Nelly Furtado videos from the time she was working with Timbaland, even though she herself is looking not one day older.
The slow song, “Pipe Dreams”, is not what you would call a banger, a radio song with high commercial potential, but there’s something about it that I’ve still found captivating. I kind of like its experimental style. The going against the grain. Yep, even musically Nelly has found another style to try and this is far removed from her funky comeback single.
As a singer (who can’t hold a long low note yet) I’m particularly impressed by her low note on “dreams”. I know it all has to do with vocal range or perhaps the help of pitch correction and autotune, but I think Nelly won’t be doing anything out of her range. So I’m just amazed by her ability. Unlike another female singer I blogged about earlier this week, Nelly does care about her artistry. Otherwise she would not take risks like these to do something different from what you would expect. It’s all very artsy and gives her an extra dimension compared to the Nelly from previous times.
But even though I appreciate her artistry, I do get the feeling she’s not attempting to get back the big commercial success she once had and it shows in the video. Nevertheless, us music bloggers are responding well to this song. It has become more clear over the years that the Nelly we saw on “Loose” was just a one-off thing. Kind of like when Jewel did a pop album, but she never was a pop star. It’s just that Nelly pulled it off so well that we can’t forget her from those days. In the meantime, she has actually developed herself further as a musician and songwriter and “Pipe Dreams” is proof of that growth.
