Nelly Furtado | “I’m Like A Bird”

HATE TO ADMIT IT, BUT…
Nelly Furtado
“I’m Like a Bird”
Whoa, Nelly!
2000 | DreamWorks

I have, in the past, laid blame on Alanis Morissette’s hugely successful Jagged Little Pill for sounding the death knell of the early 90s “alternative” rock wave. And, yes, Jagged Little Pill (which holds the distinction of being the best-selling debut album by a female artist) certainly changed the climate of the music industry. Here was an “alternative” rock singer who hadn’t come up through DIY touring and rock clubs; she’d been manufactured and primped for mass consumption. The little window in which credibility was paramount to payola, where Daniel Johnston got signed, Mazzy Star, Pavement, and the Flaming Lips had radio hits, had closed irrevocably. Things got totally (not just mostly) calculated again.

That calculation, however, was cleverly masked in a new, subtler way. For at least the next five years, all new female singers seemed like Alanis clones, each one a sort of 90s era update on Stevie Nicks. Think about it: Meredith Brooks, Tracy Bonham, Macy Gray. Even Jewel’s debut Pieces Of You – which was released the same summer as Jagged Little Pill, but didn’t become a hit for nearly two years – wouldn’t have been the hit it was without Alanis’ earlier young “Earth Mother” posturing. Though, to be fair, Jewel’s “I lived in my van” schtick gives her waaaaay more hippie cred than Alanis’ “I was on You Can’t Do That On Television” bragging rights. Each one of these women, came, had their one hit (except Alanis and Jewel, of course), and went, most of them never heard from again.

Around the time Nelly Furtado hit with her 2001 debut, “I’m Like A Bird,” the clever mask had started to crack, revealing the calculation beneath. Furtado, of Canadian and Portuguese descent, was exotic and earthy in an indescribable way: Americans know so little about Portuguese (and only marginally more about Canadian) culture, that the average Portuguese/Canadian CPA is probably inundated with questions about their “exotic, bohemian” lifestyle. So, a good-looking, Portuguese/Canadian woman, singing over blip-hoppy beats about how free she is? That’s certainly good for at least one Top 10 hit (“I’m Like A Bird” peaked at #9 on the US charts).

And sure, “I’m Like A Bird” is a good song. The accompanying video was colorful in the right ways, all blue skies and pastels. Chorus vocals paint Furtado’s lead in an updated soul vibe – in a Beck-meets-Erykah Badu way – and the antiquated vinyl-hiss layered over the rhythm bolsters that vibe. But this whole “Earth Mother” pastiche had started to grow a little weary by Spring 2001. Britney Spears’ rise to prominence had reminded people that their pop stars didn’t need to be real people to be entertaining. And so, the nurturing, flower child, pop star gimmick went the way of the buffalo. Nelly Furtado may have been the last one, I’m not sure. In any case, it had obviously gotten old by the time she came around. And when she resurfaced in 2006, it was with a more or less conventional hip-hop record. Although it’s a decent song, something about “I’m Like A Bird” has always struck me as a little phony.

by Brook Pridemore