Swinging into London town on her 'Get Loose Tour', Nelly Furtado's wildly uneven concert undulated from the sublime to the mundane. The 'Promiscuous' girl nailed her latest hits with gusto, but was hampered by a dearth of engaging material leading to a prolonged mid-concert lull.
Furtado's reinvention from sweet songbird into sassy hip-hop diva has undoubtedly been successful and the quality of recent material deserves to quash the simmering rumblings that she has 'sold out'.
The show's opening certainly highlighted her newfound 'Bling Factor' though, with a video screen projecting the landing of a Nelly Furtado-branded helicopter. But when she can appear on stage and launch straight into the hypnotically haunting 'Say It Right' - her current hit - then all is good.
Given that her commercial renaissance with the 'Loose' album owed much to the stylised Timbaland production, it was always going to be tough to translate the sounds into a live environment.
But thanks to a hard-working six-piece band (and the occasional hint of playback) the vibe was well recreated. The Timbaland vocal duties were faithfully rendered by a rapper named Socrates (presumably his earlier foray into Greek philosophy is now behind him).
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