Folklore

Being Canadian, of Portuguese descent, and somehow sort of ghetto, Nelly Furtado was an unlikely candidate for pop stardom. That she achieved it playing loopy folk-pop only gave her more cachet with the United Colors of Benetton crowd. Too bad about the records, though: For all their eclectic adornments, they’re generally pretty dull. Folklore is a perfect album for people trying to convince themselves that they’re not as white-bread as their Ford Explorer would otherwise indicate. There are flourishes of color and flavor—er, we mean flava—but really this album is less about the fluttering beats and goofy rapping on “Explode” than it is about gooey melodramatic ballads like “Picture Perfect.” The nifty mandolin hook on “One Trick Pony” isn’t that far removed from the sonic goodies Timbaland dropped on Bubba Sparxxx’s last album and it’s surrounded by other signifiers of diversity: strings, Hawaiian mini-guitar, and a couple of instruments with exotic, foreign-sounding names. Still, it all comes out in the wash of the big, bland pop chorus. Pleasant, but unmemorable.