Nelly Furtado drops new single ‘Islands of Me’
It’s exactly ten years ago that Nelly Furtado was one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. She broke through in 2000 with her hit single ‘I’m Like A Bird’ and continued her success with the albums Whoa Nelly and Folklore, but she reached her full potential during the lengthy campaign for her Timbaland produced album Loose. She threw hit after hit at us with singles like ‘Promiscuous’ and ‘All Good Things’, but things got rather quiet after this. She went for the Spanish market with the album Mi Plan in 2009 and the general public moved on when she returned in 2012 with The Spirit Indestructible. Over the past few months she teased with some covers and demos, but this time she is for real. ‘Islands of Me’ is the first track confirmed to be taken from her upcoming album The Ride which is set to drop in March 2017.

There is no clear word yet on ‘Islands of Me’ being the lead single for the album, but let us hope it is not. Furtado performed the track live on NYFW and dropped it on SoundCloud, but it does not sound like the track that will bring her back to the charts (or the public eye for that matter). It is great to hear her distinctive vocals again and lyrically it is quite interesting, but production wise it is disappointing to say the very least. ‘Islands of Me’ sounds cheap and minimal, which should not be the case when you work with people like Dev Hynes. The track has got some nice melodies hidden in there, but all that sticks out is the endless repetition of the ‘islands of me me me’ parts. This simply will not do as a comeback by the woman who brought us clasics like ‘Say It Right’, ‘Try’, ‘Maneater’ and ‘Powerless’.