Music Review: Nelly Furtado "Spirit Indestructible"

Nelly Furtado

Spirit Indescrutible

Album: The Spirit Indescrubtile

Year: 2012

            Nelly Furtado maintains a postive attitude despite adversity in the determined “Spirit Indestcrubtile.”

                A forlorn keyboard opens the single, setting a condoling Her bedroom is like a cell to her. She can watch the children run and chase each other in the neighbor’s backyard. She hears a young couple arguing over dinner. Her parents have told her she’s not allowed out. She needs to concentrate on her studies, keep her mind off of boys, and  remain focused on the goal: becoming a lawyer. She dreams of traveling, not to Mexico like everyone at her school, but to China to view the Great Wall. She thinks of how she wants her life to be once she’s able to leave: take a train to New York, have a crappy first apartment, see the musuems. It could be five years. It could be fifteen. It’s what gives her hope. (“Through my one square foot window I see outside/I have chains on my feet, but not in my mind/I'll be dancing all day, see the sun outside/Don't know how long it will be/Can't stop me.”)

          In the chorus, she’s a strong person with a big heart. She’s grateful to be alive. She won’t let her parents’ draconian rules define her. She will be own person one day. (“I have the spirit indestructible/
A heart that lovin' was made for/A body that's a miracle/I have a spirit indestructible/A heart that was made pure/Unbreakable and that's for sure/Unshakeable, so give me more.”)

   With the start of the second verse, the keyboard suddenly disappears and a domineering drum beat takes over, crushing the keyboard with foot stomping crunches.

        There are times she wants to cry. To keep her self from doing so, she closes her eyes and lets herself be. The quiet relaxes her, rejuvanating the need to get out and find her own identity. (“Through my tired eyes I phase off the rain/With the meditation, I erased my pain/There's a rhythm flowing through every vein
And the melody is never ending.”)

       The chorus is sung again.

      In the bridge, she chants as the beat hops back and forth. However, the beat gets interrupted by a noisy crowd, chanting and cheering, as she reassures herself she’s okay and will get through it without giving into other people’s expectations. (“And though they may, and though they may/Take you away, take you away/
You'll never break, you'll never break, break/And though they may, and though they may/Take you away, take you away/They'll never break, they'll never break you.”)

        The chorus is sung again.

        She chants again to end the single.

   She’s been told what to be since she’s been little girl. She can’t go to football games or dances. Parties are out of the question  At home, there are chores to do, homework to be done and brochures for colleges to read. However, Furtado’s vocals are weak and fatigued, undercutting the single’s theme of independence sliver by sliver until there isn’t any fight in her left.

       The beat, whiplashes from somber ballad for the first minute to an upbeat dance track. Then a crowd chant appears out of nowhere and then it’s back to the upbeat dance track.

   The choppy  “Spirit Indesctrubile” is jumbled, cut into a dozen pieces without neither connecting to the other.

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