The Spirit Indestructible

On her first English-language album since 2006’s Loose, Nelly Furtado fuses heady beats with food for the soul. The Canadian pop alchemist dabbles in sparkling synth-pop (on the starlit “The Most Beautiful Thing”), anthemic rock (on the powerful “Believers”), and swaggering hip-pop (on the ode to outsized earrings “Big Hoops”). But the lyrics’ inspirational themes, whether they’re encouraging listeners to love themselves or chronicling the tough decisions people make during wartime, are the connective tissue for Furtado’s restless genre explorations.