The bold, brassy ``Maneater " borrows a little of the ``I know I'm hot" fire from Kelis 's ``Milkshake " and tosses in some retro keys to fluffy effect. ``Te Busque, " featuring Juanes , and ``Wait for You " both mix some international spice into the proceedings with gentle Spanish guitar and serpentine Eastern rhythms, respectively. As a co-songwriter, Coldplay's Chris Martin contributes a bit of his shimmer and lilt to the soft closer , ``All Good Things (Come to an End)." And Madonna wouldn't be ashamed to call ``Afraid " -- a spacey dance jam with warbly computer vocal effect -- her own.
Like Gwen Stefani's ``Love.Angel.Music.Baby," ``Loose" is the sound of an artist indulging her love for pop, hip-hop, the '80 s, and shaking booty without worrying about the meaning of it all.
Those wondering what happened to the excitable yet slightly naive girl we met on her ambitious 2000 debut , ``Whoa, Nelly!," shouldn't be alarmed by Furtado's sexy new look and nightclub flirtations. Although she has stripped away some of the self-conscious seriousness of that record and its less commercially successful but still-worthy 2002 follow-up , ``Folklore ," she hasn't lost the aura of feminine confidence that clung to them.
Instead of making like the bird of her first hit and flying away from her previous sound, she's transformed into a 27-year-old single mom who is equally at home unleashing the sassy dance diva who wants to party or revealing the thoughtful singer-songwriter who muses about the divinity of love, the powers of self-reliance, and the mysteries of the world.
Although her vocals have limitations and can veer from spunky to strident, Furtado acquits herself nicely on ballads such as the melancholy ``In God's Hands," allowing her voice to waft breezily into her upper register.
In the liner notes to ``Loose , " Furtado tells her fans, ``My voice is changing, but my song remains the same: always follow your heart." It is clear in these songs that Furtado did just that and really enjoyed herself. Listeners should feel the same way.
