Ella es como un pájaro…
[Video][Myspace]
[5.10]
Chuck Eddy: And here I thought she was Portuguese (not to mention Canadian). Pretty much a snoozerama, either way. Improves slightly when she speeds up.
[4]
Briony Edwards: This song has some lovely elements — like the chorus, which is layered with a bunch of pleasingly pleasant harmonies and a pretty epic guitar tone (especially towards the end of the track), which culminate in a sound which is driving, but not overly challenging. However, there doesn’t really seem to be much more to it than that. Definitely a nod back to the original “Like a Bird” era Nelly, which is on the whole more fitting than the attempts at the sexy, even if those attempts were actually more exciting musically. Nothing exceptional, but nice enough.
[4]
Edward Okulicz: If this truly is her skin, she’s very very uneasy in it. Dear everyone who wished Nelly would abandon the amazingly danceable urban-esque pop of her last album: ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?
[2]
Alex Ostroff: Facing the daunting task of following up pop juggernaut Loose, Furtado sidesteps into Spanish and back to her Folklore-era rock tendencies. It’s a good look. The titular ‘Hands in the Air’ aren’t ones of celebration, but rather of exasperation. Nelly fights through the tense and wordy pre-chorus with her domineering boyfriend, before laying down her weapons and breaking into an anthemic chorus. Throwing up her hands, she presumably flips him the bird before she flies away.
[8]
Michaelangelo Matos: I’ll give her this: she’s nowhere near as irritating when she isn’t singing in English.
[4]
Alfred Soto: Returning to her roots as a boring acoustic chanteuse after years of flashing pink for Timbaland isn’t as easy as Furtado thinks. She renders this piece of Shakira-lite even more pedestrian with a voice as toneless as an answering machine greeting.
[4]
Martin Skidmore: I like her voice a lot on the verses: it sounds strained with feeling, pleading, but she relaxes into the chorus and it is far less sharply appealing.
[6]
Erick Bieritz: Furtado is apparently an auto-tune abstainer and “Manos Al Aire” certainly gives her the chance to show off her unassisted chops, whatever the language. Her staccato verses and languid chorus sound good, but there’s too little development to make the song deeply affecting.
[5]
Anthony Miccio: Based on the translations I’ve read, it’s unclear whether Furtado’s character is leaving an increasingly hurtful lover or resigning herself to the dysfunction, and this context gives weight to what was already an affecting mix of vulnerable vocals and sprightly sounds. But the music ends suddenly, with a pat aftertaste I can’t wash away without better understanding how the lyrics play. An English version could easily jump up a few notches, but that perfunctory finish means I can’t be certain.
[6]
Martin Kavka: This is a strange, strange, beautiful track. The acoustic guitar running underneath sounds as if it’s gotten soused, and is having trouble making it home safely. Nelly sounds as if she’s trying reallllly hard not to cry by acting defiant, and by the first chorus she’s breathing as hard as a contestant on Dance Your Ass Off!. The lyrics go far in explaining this. “Manos Al Aire” is a fantasy that the boyfriend who’s currently telling you to shut up might change back to the man he was yesterday. What to do when you can’t talk back to him? Write a song in which you complain about being told to shut up, just like Aimee Mann in “Voices Carry.”
[8]