My second installment of Random Weekends starts off with the English-language version of Shakira’s ‘Loca,’ a bonus track from her most recent album, 2010′s Sale El Sol.
The Spanish version of this song was the album’s lead-off single and I prefer it to this one, though to be honest, they’re basically the same. I just prefer Shakira’s voice in her native Spanish — the way the multi-sylabbic words roll off her tongue so effortlessly.
Best Songs of 2010 – Honorable Mentions
In 2010, Shakira continued her impressive win streak, releasing Sale el Sol just a year after the irresistible She Wolf.
After the latter record’s club-heavy focus, Sale el Sol was a return to the Latin dance and pop sounds that highlighted the early years of her career.
In a weird way, the record reminds me of Beck’s Guero, in that it’s a mature and measured synthesis of styles dabbled in over the previous decade. Probably the first time that comparison has been made.
Last year Shakira suffered her first commercial failure in some time, when her dance-heavy English-language She Wolf album failed to light up the charts.
Now, it seems a bit silly in this era to call 350,000 U.S. copies sold (not to mention 1.5 million worldwide) a disappointment but for an artist who’s sold more than 50 million copies of her previous five albums, I suppose the bar is set a little higher.
Despite its tepid sales, She Wolf was an artistic and critical success, its dance-pop sheen highlighting some of the most indelible melodies and infectious beats of Shakira’s career. But according to whoever writes the rules for pop music, the album has gone down as a failure.
Shakira’s next, and most recent, album was 2009′s English-language She Wolf. She threw her international listeners a bone by putting out a Spanish version of the lead single (titled ‘Loba’) a month before the album’s release.
She Wolf was a departure for Shakira in that it was more tightly focused than anything she’d released before. In part that’s because the album clocks in at around 30 minutes (not counting some bonus live tracks and alternate versions) and therefore doesn’t leave much room for rampant experimentation.
But mostly Shakira was going for a dance club vibe on these tracks, utilizing every studio trick at her disposal to deliver a slick modern sound heavy on beats and bass.
Here’s the Jungian album cover I promised. Thank you, Jung! As Shakira explained, “the reference is to a universal archetype of Eve and the original sin. I think that is something that is really subconsciously in our minds. On the cover of Vol. 2 I wanted to add another reason for Eve to bite the forbidden fruit – that would be her oral fixation.”
Works for me.
Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 might not be the best album Shakira has released, but I find it the most interesting. Stylistically it’s all over the map, with club songs ramming up against florid ballads and alternative rockers. And lyrically Shakira touches on a wider range of topics than she has in the past, including a dip into global politics with ‘Timor.’
