Folklore

1	One-Trick Pony 4:47
2	Powerless (Say What You Want) 3:53
3	Explode 3:45
4	Try 4:40
5	Fresh Off the Boat 3:16
6	Força 3:40
7	The Grass Is Green 3:51
8	Picture Perfect 5:16
9	Saturdays / Jarvis Church 2:05
10	Build You Up 4:59
11	Island of Wonder 3:49
12	Childhood Dreams 6:35

Barnes & Noble

With her daring sophomore album, Nelly Furtado emerges as the anti-Britney. Though the two are roughly the same age, share a similar catch in their voice, and released 2003 albums within a week of one another, Nelly is just the opposite of the industry puppet that is Ms. Spears. Folklore is some of the most daring pop delivered by a Top 40 artist, and not just sonically. Like Britney, Nelly's hung up on her past, but unlike America's favorite schoolgirl-gone-bad, Nelly writes real songs about it. The atypical "Saturdays" (and it's hard to say atypical on an album full of varied, stand-alone songs), for example, remembers the weekends cleaning hotel rooms with her Portuguese-immigrant mother. "Fresh Off the Boat" finds strength in such privations -- "My hands are dirty, I like 'em that way / Shows who I am,'' she croons, "The plastic on the furniture suits me just fine," before breaking into a funked-up Portuguese lullaby. The lovely "The Grass Is Green" explores regret with a lyric worthy of Nashville's best: "Oh yeah, the grass is green / But I think I stained my jeans / And everyone can tell I've been in it." Instead of chasing trends, Nelly blazes trails, incorporating unlikely instrumentation (banjo by Béla Fleck, strings by the Kronos Quartet, swooping and diving electronics courtesy of producers Track & Field), rhythms from Brazil and other Afro-related beats, and offbeat collaborations (in addition to the above, Brazilian star Caetano Veloso deuts on "Island of Wonder." Given such uncommon rein over her material, Folklore defies expectations, surpassing the hip-hop pop of her hit debut. Forget what Britney says, it's Nelly who's in the zone. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Unlike some of her modern-day neo-singer/songwriter peers, Nelly Furtado never hid her ambition or her desire to be an "important" artist, which was part of the charm of her debut, Whoa, Nelly! Despite (or perhaps because of) her youth, she was willing to try anything, blending a number of sounds and styles, all of which were tied together by her sincerity and audacious desire to say something grand, or at least say everything grandly. Her musical restlessness was underpinned by a sensibility that was fundamentally serious but leavened by sly humor, all of which made Whoa, Nelly! a bracing listen. Her second album, Folklore, is a bit of a different situation. Released three years after her debut, it picks up where the first record leaves off, but it's a much more serious affair, a situation telegraphed by the album covers. Whoa, Nelly! and Folklore mirror each other -- both bear the same Nelly Furtado logo and both feature a reclining Furtado, but where the debut was bright, girlish, and rather innocent, finding her lying to the right in a field, she's now bathed in warm, dark colors, looking rather sultry as she lies to the left among a bunch of leaves. The artwork implies she's more mature, and it's a sentiment that's mirrored in the album titles, since the plainspoken Folklore lacks the humor of Whoa, Nelly! and suggests she'd rather play it straight than play around. Furtado's songs play like entries in a diary. To a certain extent, this was true on Whoa, Nelly!, but since she had yet to reach stardom, she was writing about more universal subjects. Plus, her thrill in making her first album was palpable, giving the album a naïve, exciting charm. There are some interesting musical moments on Folklore; Furtado has skills and ambition, which make her music interesting. Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Billboard

Middle Eastern, hip-hop, pop and country flavors merge into a wonderful, though at times jumbled, disc.

People Magazine

Thanks to quirky vocals, more introspective lyrics, and a sense of musical adventure, Furtado easily avoids the sophomore slump. Chuck Arnold