Today we're going to take a walk through the (not-so-distant) past and explore a song from Nelly Furtado that really moves me. While the Portuguese-Canadian singer's musical style has evolved over the years, she is still unmistakeably Nelly, and my first introduction to her, as it was for so many others, was via "I'm like a Bird," the lead single off of her solo debut, Whoa, Nelly! That particular song never spoke to me until years after the fact, but at the time, I was very taken with the second single, "Turn Off the Light," and I still very much love it.
Furtado has an interesting way of putting songs together, and I think that "Turn Off the Light" is a prime example of that. From the opening, with its near-chant-and-chime to the very brief pauses to the little flourishes that abound, everything about the song is interesting, including the lyrics. They tell the story of a girl who is very different than people think, which is not an uncommon tale in itself, but thanks to Furtado's insistent way of delivering the lines, it is elevated to the point where we, the listeners, care.
And, at its core, it is a very affirming song. Furtado sings, "I'm running, I'm running; / Catch up with me, life. [...]Can't you see, why can't you, why can't you see / It's all in me?" She KNOWS it is. By the end of the song, so do we, and we maybe even begin to think that it's all in us, too.
Buy through Amazon for $0.99.
Photo via here.
-Cate-
PS By the way, the "official" music video (as opposed to the less-coherent, unpolished "underground" one), is two parts block party, one part peep show, one part Dagoba--and 100% Sophie Muller, which in this case does not work entirely to Furtado's advantage but is visually interesting, at the very least. Watch it via Vevo on YouTube.
Furtado has an interesting way of putting songs together, and I think that "Turn Off the Light" is a prime example of that. From the opening, with its near-chant-and-chime to the very brief pauses to the little flourishes that abound, everything about the song is interesting, including the lyrics. They tell the story of a girl who is very different than people think, which is not an uncommon tale in itself, but thanks to Furtado's insistent way of delivering the lines, it is elevated to the point where we, the listeners, care.
And, at its core, it is a very affirming song. Furtado sings, "I'm running, I'm running; / Catch up with me, life. [...]Can't you see, why can't you, why can't you see / It's all in me?" She KNOWS it is. By the end of the song, so do we, and we maybe even begin to think that it's all in us, too.
Buy through Amazon for $0.99.
Photo via here.
-Cate-
PS By the way, the "official" music video (as opposed to the less-coherent, unpolished "underground" one), is two parts block party, one part peep show, one part Dagoba--and 100% Sophie Muller, which in this case does not work entirely to Furtado's advantage but is visually interesting, at the very least. Watch it via Vevo on YouTube.
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