Is it glib, sexist even, to ascribe creative resurgence to a hormonal rush? It might well be were it not for the fact that Nelly Furtado has admitted that the sexual reawakening she experienced after the birth of her daughter played some part in fashioning the raw abandon of Loose.

It is not uncommon for women to feel as though they are reclaiming their bodies a year or so after giving birth, and Furtado’s music certainly rediscovers its libido with a vengeance in a sequence of bumping urban jams alongside assorted Latin and Caribbean-inflected grooves.

Cynics have rushed to deduce that the relative failure of 2003’s more sombre Folklore (two million copies sold) is the real source of this Gwen Stefani- style urban makeover. But Furtado has dabbled in hip- hop and R&B from her early days on Toronto’s music scene, in collaborations with Jurassic 5 and the Roots and, of course, on the remix of Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On.

Either way, linking up with Timbaland for the majority of this album and recording it in superheated Miami has certainly imbued it with a licentious mood that disports itself from the off with a clutch of provocative numbers under which the producer weaves sinuous hip-hop grooves spliced with 1980s synthpop textures. The pouting Afraid is the equivalent of a speed date, while the single Maneater, with its strident, cymbal- heavy beat, gnawing synth line and disarming singalong chorus, poledances into view. Promiscuous follows with more clattering percussion before Glow works up a sweat and the pretty Showtime ushers in a mood of post-coital bliss. And that’s just the first five tracks.

Timbaland is behind many highlights, including All Good Things, co-written with Chris Martin, that it hardly seems necessary to mention Te Busque, the Latin diversion with Shakira’s Lester Mendez and In God’s Hands, a ballad co-written with Rick Nowels that reflects on the collapse of her relationship with the father of her child. But it demonstrates that Furtado has not given in totally to her desires. Nevertheless, Furtado is a Loose woman again, and everyone should be grateful.

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