England's Neon Hitch reminds us of why we fell in love with Nelly Furtado in the first place. Before we had M.I.A., Furtado engaged masses of listeners with her whimsical lyrical soundbites and colorful world pop-meets-folk-meets-hip hop musical framings. Than she started spending a little too much time with Timbaland and some of that fumblesome quirk was lost.

On Neon's supremely catchy "My Book", she rhyme-sings great little nuggets like "They say 'Don't be mean'/ They say 'Don't be mad'/ I say 'Go to Hell'/ I don't take it back" through distorted drones and ragga-loping guitar flickers, turning what sounds like folks just messing around in the studio into this by-accident bubbly triumph. A promising introduction that supplies heavy doses of unabashed sass ("You say I'm a bitch/ Like it's somethin' bad") and delightfully messy song-craft, "My Book" shrewdly pre-positions her as the kind of self-aware anti-pop pop tart that makes hipsters and bloggers all tickly with delight these days. Our only request for this sure-to-be-overhyped-real-soon newcomer? That she steer away from Timbaland...at least for a couple more albums.



DL: "My Book" (YFH)