"All Good Things " is a song by Canadian-Portuguese singer Nelly Furtado from her third studio albumLoose. It was written by Furtado, Tim "Timbaland" Mosley, Chris Martin, and Nate "Danja" Hills. The song was released as the album's third European single in November 2006. It was released as the fourth single in the United States and Australia. The single featured Chris Martin, frontman of the band Coldplay, harmonizing throughout the song. The original version had him say a few words at the beginning, and sing the chorus behind Furtado. Critically, "All Good Things " was praised for having diversity in comparison to other songs on Loose, but at the same time criticized for its mellowness. Commercially, the song did well on the music charts, reaching number-one in more than fifteen countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. It was Europe's second-highest-selling song of 2007.
Writing and recording
"All Good Things" was conceived near the end of the recording of Loose. Furtado was at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, which was held in Miami, Florida in August, when she bumped into her old friend Chris Martin, who had been performing with Coldplay. Furtado told Martin she was working with Timbaland on a new album, and Martin said he "loved" Timbaland and asked if he could visit the studio. Timbaland had been listening to Coldplay's album X&Y in the studio frequently the previous week, so Furtado agreed and invited Martin to The Hit Factory the following night.
Critical reception
The song was reviewed favorably by critics, often comparing this song as a reminiscence to Furtado's previous records. An MSN UK review of the song described it as "a reflective and emotional ballad with a strong melody, presumably the input of the Coldplay man, and lyrics which remind us that Nelly's still like a bird, albeit one who likes a bit of night-time action"; it gave the song 4.5 out of five stars. HMV UK published a four out of five star review in which its writer said that, in contrast to the album's previous singles, "Maneater" and "Promiscuous", "All Good Things" is "a beautiful, hooky, emotive ballad". Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine wrote that the song is "adventurous, hip, playful and enduring. Featuring an enlightened lyric with the track's hypnotic melody featuring contribution from Coldplay's Chris Martin, "Good" lives up to Furtado's 2001 double Grammy Award nods." dotMusic called the song "a superior goosebumps slowie." Allmusic's Stephan Thomas described the song as an "ideal soundtracks to chill-out moments".
Release and chart performance
The single reached number four in the United Kingdom. In countries such as the Netherlands and Austria, it peaked higher than "Maneater" and "Promiscuous", and it became Furtado's first number-one hit in the Netherlands and Germany, where it was the second most successful single of 2007. It reached number one in twenty countries, including Switzerland and Austria. It topped the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles — Furtado's first number-one on the chart — and reached number five on the United World Tracks Chart. The song was released as the fourth single from Loose in the U.S. and Australia. It debuted at number twenty on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, rising to number fifteen in its third week; in June, after descending the chart, it rose to a new peak of number twelve, and it remained on the chart for twenty-one weeks and eventually gained Platinum status for shipments of 70,000 units. A new mix of the song was released to radio on 10 April in the U.S., where it debuted at number ninety-nine on the BillboardHot 100.
The "All Good Things" video, directed by Gabriel Coss and Israel Lugo, was filmed in Puerto Rico and shot back-to-back with the video for "Say It Right", the album's third single in North America. It features a love story between Furtado and a male model, and Furtado is seen walking along a beach and into a forest, where she finds a dinner table hanging upside-down from a tree. There are accompanying shots of the model finding, and subsequently hanging from, the table. The video includes flashbacks to when Furtado and the model were eating at the table, and it ends with them holding each other under a stream of water. Furtado said that the video is "very tropical and romantic" and reminded her of videos for Sarah McLachlan singles: "it has that element of art to it. It's kind of like cinema."
