mrkstvns's Full Review: Donde Estan Los Ladrones by Shakira
It's easy to get the wrong impression of Shakira. With all the hoopla over her recent Laundry Service CD, you could be forgiven for thinking that she was just yet another shallow Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears. That would be a very serious mistake. Shakira is nothing at all like those paragons of substanceless teen fluff.
In the first place, Shakira is a rocker. Nothing but. In terms of sound, her music is closest to some of the great alternative rock groups of the 1990s. While the most common parallel that you hear is to Alanis Morissette, it's also the most unfortunate. Sure, Shakira's vocals have a startlingly similar tone -- especially on songs like Ciega Sordomuda -- but that's the absolute limit to which you can take the comparison.
I find Shakira's music to be more complex than that of Alanis Morissette, with more disparate influences melded into a harmonious whole. I also think Shakira's lyrics are more intelligent, insightful, heartfelt, and more reflective of a songwriter who is mature and is secure with herself as a person. Part of this might be that I just grow weary of hearing Morissette's tired, misguided, warped brand of whining feminism, complete with its baggage of incessant gender bashing and stereotyping. But that's just my opinion, and you're perfectly welcome to disagree with me.
There are still a lot of legitimate comparisons that can be made to Shakira's work. I've heard people say that some of the songs sound almost like Tears for Fear, the Bangles, the Cranberries, or even Tracy Chapman. I read one interview with Shakira a few months ago in which she cited groups like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones as being among her younger influences (though I don't really hear that kind of influence coming through in her work).
When I listen to Shakira, I hear quite a range of influences, but I think that her work is more in synch with rockers like Alejandra Guzman than just about anything else.
Integrity and Introspection...
Shakira is known for investing a huge amount of personal pain and experience in the songs that she writes. While I admire her forthrightness in saying that some of her songs are definitely introspective, I almost wish she wouldn't give the voyeurs so much to look forward to. Some people (mostly horny males) like looking at this CD and trying to figure out what's going on in Shakira's love life. It's easy to see why. The songs do seem to have a logical progression of themes, starting off with love and devotion, and then the breakup, followed by a period of mourning and loss.
Soooo, sounds to me like Shakira was so deeply in love with someone that she was inspired to do Ciega Sordomuda, but the skunk had roving eyes and Shakira gave him the ultimatum in Si Te Vas. "Adios!" the guy said, breaking Shakira's heart so much that her lonliness was reflected in Moscas en la Casa....I can keep going with this stuff if you want, but I think you get the point...
I might not be so crazy about this CD if Shakira were a less talented woman -- like those legions of lazy oafs of teeny-bopper pop superstars who couldn't write a song to save their lives -- but that isn't Shakira.
All of Shakira's songs are her own. Totally her own! She writes the songs. She sings them. She produces her own stuff. Even though she doesn't do the guitar work on most of her studio cuts, she does also play guitar. Truly a multi-talented and artistically devoted musical mind -- no doubt about it! Even when Shakira sounds a touch off (which doesn't really happen on this album, but does on later and earlier works), she flubbs with gentle, well-intentioned integrity. I truly respect artists like Shakira. I'd like her even if she was just a great singer, but with all the added talents and the way her work truly represents herself as a human being, I can't help but want to heap the praise on higher and higher...
But enough widi-widi! Let's check out the jams, shall we...
Highlights of Donde Estan Los Ladrones?
This is one of only a handful of CDs in my collection where I honestly enjoy hearing every single cut! Picking a few top choices is tough work, but I guess that's why epinions pays me the BIG bucks. Let's have at it!
I love Ciega, Sordomuda! I love the forlorn trumpet solos in the opening, and I love the quick paced danceable beat. I also dig on the depth of feeling that the lyrics convey as they express how deeply a person can love someone else, to the extent that the whole world revolves around them. I like the staccato delivery of some of the verses, and I bet few other vocalists would have the range and the ability to deliver these kinds of lyrics with the utter conviction that Shakira packs into them.
Si Te Vas is no slouch either! This is the song that I think lends credence to the people who say that Shakira sounds like a Tracy Chapman. There are riffs in here that remind me of tunes like Chapman's Fast Car, but the song is basically a softer, forlorn song of losing a love.
Moscas en la Casa shifts gears a bit. This is a great example of how the tone of a song helps create a mood. This song is soft, and slow, and melancholy. It creates the perfect mood for reflective verses about lost love. Rough 2 penny translation: my days without you are just so dark, so long, and so gray...my days without you are no fun, they're hard to endure....my days without you are like a sky without the silver moon, nor the bright rays of the sun. (Yeah, yeah, I know...I cut a bunch and didn't do a literal translation, but gimme a break...the fine folks here on eeps don't give a hoot about authentic translations...they just want a taste of the mood of the lyrics).
No Creorocks! I love the fast pace, I love the upbeat sound. I love the soft marimba-like percussions. Shakira does the harmonica work herself (why am I not surprised?)
If you think I was off base in comparing Shakira to Alejandra Guzman, check out the title track, Donde Estan los Ladrones?. Does this tune just rock the house, or WHAT?!?! Of course it does! It's the best talents Guzman ever applied to a jam, and its at least as good as the best from any english-language female rocker. Man! I gotta listen to this one again...'scuse me a sec while I hit the replay button...
I can't believe all the press Shakira's been getting in the U.S. lately for the tune Eyes Like Yours. Sure it's a hot tune and its got a unique sound unlike anything in the English-language rock world, but it is just SOOOOOO much better done in its original Spanish, where the tonal qualities of the language really just meld with the music. Ojos Asi is the original version, and its an amazing work that drags Arab rhythms and sounds into the rock arena. I doubt that anyone but Shakira could really accomplish this feat with as much sensitivity and power.
If you think the Shakira tracks that they're playing on MTV these days sound cool, you really owe it to yourself to listen to the originals -- it's like night and day!
Tale of the Tracks...
11 great tunes, 41+ minutes of solid rock:
1. Ciega Sordomuda
2. Si Te Vas
3. Moscas en la Casa
4. No Creo
5. Inevitable
6. Octavo Dia
7. Que Vuelvas
8. Tu
9. Donde Estan los Ladrones?
10. Sombra de Ti
11. Ojos Asi
About Shakira
Shakira has a heck of lot of musical experience for such a young woman (she's only 25 -- born in February 1977). Her first album was recorded when she was just 14 years old. A lot has been made of the fact that she stands out from the crowded rock world in that her music incorporates arab influences (she is half Lebanese and speaks arabic as her second language). You can read about her move into the english language rock world by checking out the reviews of her Laundry Service CD.
There's been a lot of inaccurate information about Shakira showing up not just on the web, but even in the mainstream media. I heard one radio DJ say that Donde Estan Los Ladrones? was Shakira's second album. Not so! Just to set the record straight, here are Shakira's albums that I am aware of:
Magia (1991)
Peligro (1993)
Pies Descalzos (1995)
Donde Estan los Ladrones? (1998)
MTV Unplugged (2000)
Laundry Service (2001)
(If you know of titles I missed, please leave a comment or send me an email -- I love having folks set the record straight!)
Should You Buy This CD??
In case you didn't already guess, I absolutely love this CD. It is, in my opinion, totally flawless and it is the one CD I regard as the very, very best work Shakira has ever done.
Sure Pies Descalzos is also a great album, but I don't think it melds together as a symphonic whole the way that this album does, and there are a couple of cuts on that album that I don't regard as utter masterpieces. In the same vein, I'm not crazy about Shakira's latest work, the controversial "cross-over" album, Laundry Service, although that's undoubtedly the album that typical english-only Americans will gravitate towards. Rather a shame if you ask me -- Donde Estan los Ladrones? is the far stronger work and is, in my opinion, THE album that defines Shakira as a musical talent.
Wanna know what Shakira is all about? Buy Donde Estan los Ladrones? Bet you can't listen to it just once...
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.