Nearly six years have passed since Nelly Furtado got Loose with her Timbaland-produced multi-platinum album that took the Canadian singer-songwriter to the very top of the pop charts with singles “Promiscuous” and “Say It Right.” (Puzzlingly, “Maneater” fizzled out at #16.)

After taking a detour into Spanish-language music with 2009’s Mi Plan (she’s of Portuguese descent), releasing a greatest hits collection in 2010, and guesting on the occasional track, Furtado is gearing up for the release of her fifth studio album, The Spirit Indestructible, on June 19.

This time, her list of collaborators is long and certainly eclectic, including Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins (Brandy, Lady Gaga), Salaam Remi (Amy Winehouse, Nas), Bob Rock (Veruca Salt, Metallica), John Shanks (Sheryl Crow, Liz Phair), Fraser T. Smith (Adele), Tiësto, and Mike Angelakos of Passion Pit. The thread holding it all together is the 33-year-old artist herself, having co-written all of the tracks on The Spirit Indestructible.

“This album is all about positivity, youth, good energy, and the relentlessness of the spirit,” Furtado says. “I want people to live this music the way we did when we wrote it. I want them to jump, dance, scream, laugh, cry, love, and vibe to it, and to turn it up very loud everywhere.”

First single, “Big Hoops (Bigger The Better),” was produced by Rodney Jerkins, behind the board for eight tracks on The Spirit Indestructible. When Furtado revealed the song’s title a couple of weeks ago, I honestly thought it was a joke. Nope. And while “Big Hoops” didn’t grab me right out of the gate, it’s quickly grown on me, benefiting from not sounding like much else in pop right now. The self-aware Furtado’s not shy about proclaiming that fact, either, singing, “I bet ya never seen something like that / I bet you never heard something like that.”

The frenetic drum-and-bass coda to “Big Hoops” is an unexpected delight. Bigger and better, the single is likely to put Furtado within reach of pop’s brass ring once again.

Purchase Nelly Furtado – “Big Hoops (Bigger The Better)” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.