Nelly Furtado Brings the Punk-Hop

After a year and a half spent writing new songs, traveling the world to collaborate with Pharrell Williams, Coldplay's Chris Martin and producer Nellee Hooper (No Doubt, Madonna), Nelly Furtado is finally ready to release her third album, Loose, on May 23rd.

"It was a very indulgent experience," says the eclectic Canadian pop singer. "It was actually the most idyllic sort of album-making ever. It's sort of every artist's dream, where you're flown around the world, just kind of having a good time and making music."

In August, when it came time to lay down the tracks, Furtado turned to hip-hop talent Timbaland, who featured her on Missy Elliott's "Get UR Freak On" remix in 2001. When Interscope President Jimmy Iovine played Furtado some of the producer's latest tracks, her reaction was "Wow! It sound[ed] like he's listening to all the same stuff as me -- everything from System of a Down to Bloc Party and Death From Above 1979, and a lot of Coldplay, too." Within no time, says Furtado, "I was in Miami and having the time of my life."

Working in the evenings, the pair laid down ten of Loose's thirteen tracks, forging a new genre from their shared influences. "We call it 'punk-hop,'" she says of most of the album's sound. "We were thinking, 'Let's do modern Eurythmics -- You're Dave and I'm Annie. Let's make this modern, poppy, spooky music.' And we achieved that on some of the tracks."

The track "Maneaters," Furtado says, is "a 'couture pop' song, where it's in your face and very fashionable, stylistic and of-the-moment," while "No Hay Igual" takes its cues from reggaeton. "I didn't know what reggaeton was until I went to Miami and Pharrell's like, 'You're crazy!'" she confesses. "He played me a reggaeton song, and then I was like, 'Holy shit, it's great!'" She was inspired to write "No Hay Igual," in Spanish, nearly on the spot.

The album closer "All Good Things," which features Chris Martin, was actually a last-minute addition, after Furtado bumped into her old friend during August's MTV Movie Awards. "I was telling him what I was up to, and he's like, 'I love Timbaland. Can I come by?'" she recalls. "But [Tim's] like a big dude, and Chris was scared to sit down at the keyboard. I'm like, 'Chris, sit down. Let's make some music.' I'm always the instigator."

It was, in part, these spontaneous creative decisions that led Furtado to name the album Loose. "I left in all the sour notes; I left in all the giggling," she says. "It's good times."

Gilmour Fine Without Floyd On New Album, Tour

David Gilmour has remained quiet since Pink Floyd's unexpected reunion last July for the Live 8 concert at Hyde Park, but hardly inactive. The man described as "the guitar and the voice of Pink Floyd" was busy putting the finishing touches to only his third solo album in a career that spans close to 40 years.

As previously reported, "On an Island" is due March 6 through EMI in Europe and a day later via Columbia Records in the United States. A 25-date sold-out tour starts in March in Europe and crosses over to America in April before returning to the U.K. at the end of May for a series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.

"I do really think it is about as good a piece of work as I have ever done," Gilmour tells Billboard, adding, "It felt to me that this album should be me and not Pink Floyd this time. It's just a slightly different way of working. I worked from home on my own [without] having to be involved in the rather large machinery that is the Pink Floyd thing."

And while Pink Floyd played stadiums on its final 1994 tour, Gilmour is constraining himself to theaters and mid-size venues this time. "I don't owe people anything," he says. "If people would like to come to my concerts I'd love them to come. And if they like the music that I make, I love that too. But I do not make music for other people. I make it to please myself."

Gilmour confirms Pink Floyd "were offered a lot of money to go on tour" after Live 8, with or without founding member Roger Waters, with whom Gilmour has incessantly feuded since the mid 1980s.

"I have no interest in going on a tour to make money without making new product, new art," he says. "So just going out and replaying our old hits again on a tour does not appeal to me at all."

So will there ever be a chance to see the band live again? "Who knows?," Gilmour offers. "I have no plans at all to do that. My plans are to do my concerts and put my record out."

APPETITE FOR G N' R

Three studio-quality tracks from Guns N' Roses' long-delayed Chinese Democracy album leaked to the Internet. The news comes a few weeks after singer Axl Rose turned up at a Korn tour party in Los Angeles and told Rollingstone.com that "people will hear music this year."

Lohan Doesn't Want to Be Called Teen Queen

NEW YORK - Lindsay Lohan doesn't want to be called a Teen Queen. In an interview in the March issue of Allure magazine, now on newsstands, the 19-year-old says she wants to be considered a serious actress — and rejects her youthful, party-girl image.

"I hate it when people call me a teen queen," Lohan says in an interview.

Lohan, star of family friendly movies such as "Freaky Friday" and "Herbie: Fully Loaded," has recently graduated to more grown-up roles, acting opposite Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin and Tommy Lee Jones in Robert Altman's "A Prairie Home Companion," due in theaters in June.

She's also been working on "Chapter 27," a film about the death of John Lennon, starring Jared Leto.

As for her days as a Skinny Girl, Lohan says: "Sometimes being that thin doesn't look healthy. I kind of didn't realize that."

She dropped pounds from her shapely figure following a hospital visit last year, she says. "I lost weight when I was in the hospital, and then I wanted to keep it off."

"It was an attention thing, too," she adds. "(But) you start to wonder if your friends are your friends because you look a certain way."

Regarding her breakup with Wilmer Valderrama, Lohan tells the magazine: "I know now that I don't need a boyfriend."

The past year "felt like five lifetimes because I've grown up a lot," she says. "I know better what to do and what not to do. I lost sight of the people and things that are most important to me."

Angry Bond Fans Threaten to Boycott Film

NEW YORK - They're shaken, stirred and just plain angry. And several months late with their response. A group of James Bond fans have launched a Web site, www.craignotbond.com to protest British actor Daniel Craig replacing Pierce Brosnan in the 007 film franchise, and boycott the upcoming Bond movie "Casino Royale."

The fair-haired Craig, whose recent screen credits include "Munich" and "The Jacket," was tapped last October to play the secret-agent icon.

"EON Productions angered fans around the world when they fired Pierce Brosnan at the height of his popularity as Bond," said a statement on the site. "To add insult to injury, EON cast a short, blond, odd-looking Daniel Craig in the role of Bond."

"Craig, described by The New York Times as having a 'pale, flattened face and large, fleshy ears' is a terrible choice for Bond. If EON Productions and Sony Pictures will not accept they've made a big mistake, then Bond fans promise to boycott Casino Royale!"

Calls by The Associated Press to EON Productions and a representative for Craig were not immediately returned on Tuesday.

Brosnan stepped into the shoes of dashing predecessors Sean Connery and Roger Moore to play a blue-eyed, dark-haired Bond in "Tomorrow Never Dies," "The World Is Not Enough" and "Die Another Day."

In its statement, the Web site claimed EON did not want to pay for Brosnan or other high-profile actors Hugh Jackman and Clive Owen as replacements.

Ricky Gervais Podcast to Be Sold

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Ricky Gervais' podcast is going commercial.

A New Jersey-based company announced Tuesday it will begin selling subscriptions to the "Ricky Gervais Show" next week.

Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the team behind the BBC's acclaimed comedy series "The Office," launched the podcast in December. Podcasts are audio recordings that are posted online; most are free.

The 30-minute show contains much scatological humor. It features the pair interviewing Karl Pilkington, a producer at their old radio show, about topics such as the cognitive abilities of chimpanzees and the existence of vampires and ghosts.

Wayne-based Audible said it will offer two seasons of the show — one starting Feb. 28 and one in the fall — each with at least four episodes. The podcasts will cost $1.95 per episode or $6.95 per season.