Perhaps no other artist is as undeserving of fandom’s scorn than Nelly Furtado, whose third album, Loose, was considered by many devotees to be a commercialized betrayal of her debut, Whoa, Nelly!, and sophomore effort, Folklore. Never mind that Loose was the superior offering, what with its chunky beats and blatant but lively evocations of ’80s-era Madonna (“Do It”), and with Timbaland at his most inspired on the stupidly fun “Promiscuous.” Furtado’s fourth album, Mi Plan, is a turn at Spanish-infused pop—a move that, ideally, should be effortless for Furtado, but manifests itself here in a labored and predictable fashion. While Mi Plan is by no means some excruciating disaster, it is heartless, with forced sincerity and awkward posturing uncharacteristic of Furtado’s previous work. The feathery-but-lifeless “Mas” can hardly make its lyrical sensitivity the least bit genuine, marching along in a cloudy stupor as Furtado’s rich voice becomes a mere afterthought. Likewise, the half-inspired title track suffers from a clumsy identity crisis, with listeners having to suffer through the unpleasant contrast of warm guitar plucks and the prickly spasms of Loose-like synths. By the time “Suficiente Tiempo” offers up its second-rate bounce n’ snap swagger, Furtado herself seems lost beneath Mi Plan’s blanket of insipid sound.
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